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THE 



PATRIOTICK PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 






LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, 



During their Session from Jan. 26, to March 4, I809, 



CONSISTING OF 



The Lieutcnaut Governuur's Sj>cg«1», 

Answer of both Houses, 

Report of the Joint Committee on 
Petitious, 

Gore's Report on Crowninshield's 
Resolutions, 



Report on the Lieutenant Gover- 
nor's Military Orders, with threg 
Speeches, 

Memorial to Congress* 

Address to the People. 



BOSTON : 



PRINTED BY JOSHUA CUSHING, 

■Sold by him at No. 79, State Street, and Thomas Wells, No. 3, Hanover Street. 

1809, 






iPUBU£ 



■n 



lUt>£ 









PREFACE, 






THE legislature of Massachusetts having* closed its 
session, the true friends of our country must forever re- 
collect its pub lick measures with equal pride and grati- 
tude. 

Before our last election, the fortunes of our country 
seemed desperate. The legislature had then sanctioned 

the cLvsImu^vvo eye fern of Mr ■ *Jeffi>r<iOn« <&&&*&• i" tglU 

can be found but in treachery or folly, wrong feelings, 
or absurd theories, and whose result, if the experiment 
was fairly tried, would have been our ruin. The suc- 
cess of the federal ticket, in our counties and towns, gave 
new hopes to the patriots who had struggled so hard for 
it. Their hopes have been realized. 

On the convention of the legislature in May, the first 
object of the federalists was the revival and restoration 
of the government to energy and confidence. In the 
appointment to offices, and in the removal of incumbents^ 
the pub lick interest was studied and has been secured* 
Their political opponents must confess, that in the se- 
lection of candidates, there was no sacrifice of duty to 
their love of party or of partizans. 

In their various answers to the communications of the 
executive, they have ever expressed just respect to the 



PREFACE, 



chief magistrate of the state, as well as exacted due re- 
gard to the rights of the people. And if the alarming 
doctrines and arbitrary measures of the lieutenant go- 
vernour, have exposed him to merited censure, its sup- 
pression would have been an abandonment of the consti- 
tution, of the liberty of the citizen and the sovereignty 
of the state. 

The various reports and resolutions of the legislature 
on the system of policy adopted by Mr. Jefferson and 
Mr. Madison, towards France and England, were de- 
manded by the ruinous experiments and delusive preten- 
sions of our cabinet. The coolness, firmness, candour 
and dignity of these legislative declarations of our rights, 
discover great minds intent on great ends. In their 
memorial to Congress and address to the people, they 
exhibit none of that petty spirit of complaint, whose 
wfu,.g- ***• ^tkfied by petulance and invective, but that 
sober sense of justice, which first measures its claims, and 
then insists on their unequivocal admission. ■ 

It will be readily perceived by all discerning men, 
that the counsels of our legislature have already check- 
ed the mad career of a cabinet, which had no guide but 
its fears and prejudices, and a second time roused our 
country to a resistance against oppression, which we trust 
in God will secure our liberty. 



LIEUT. GOVERNOUR'S SPEECH. 



Gentlemen of the Senate, and 

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives , 

THE peculiar circumstances under which we 
have assembled, call for a serious direction of our 
thoughts to that Being, in whose hands are the des- 
tinies of men and nations. The aspect of our pub* 
lick affairs imposes on all the duty of patience and 
circumspection in their investigations and their ac^ 
tions. Our best exertions for the general welfare 
are now necessary. The known patriotism of the 
people of Massachusetts is a pledge for the display of 
these virtues on every publick emergency. How far 
existing or threatened evils may be provided against, 
or endangered rights be secured, by any agency con- 
stitutionally confided to their State Legislature, are, 
at the present moment, considerations of the most 
interesting nature. 

That afflicting Providence, which has deprived you 
and your fellow citizens of the assistance and expe- 
rience of him who was selected by their suffrages to 
discharge the important duties of Chief Magistrate, 
can be felt and lamented by none more sincerely than 
by myself. This event having constitutionally de- 
volved on me these duties : as a substitution to his 



10 GOVERNOUR's SPEECH. 

talents and his experience, you may rest assured, for 
the residue of the year, of my solicitude, assiduity 
and best endeavours to promote what, from my own 
convictions, shall appear most conducive to the good 
of the whole. On this occasion, to repeat the pre- 
scribed oaths, which I have already taken, would be 
but the avowals of my political sentiments. The 
national and the state constitution contain them. 
The fair and obvious construction of these instru- 
ments, in the sense in which I shall be convinced 
they were intended to be understood, will furnish 
my rule of action, wherever they can apply. The 
outlines of our respective relations and duties are 
there to be found. My inexperience in legislative 
business will, I fear, be thought too often to call for 
your indulgence and candour. If, instructed by the 
constitution and the law, and sincerely aiming to ad- 
here to their provisions, and to advance the general 
interest and harmony among the citizens, there 
should unhappily be a difference of opinion between 
the different departments of government, as to the 
means of their application, it can be no just cause of 
uneasiness or distrust among us. 

The New England states have been represented, 
to their injury and to the injury of the United States, 
as distracted with divisions, prepared for opposition 
to the authority of the law, and ripening for a seces- 
sion from the Union. Anxieties at suggestions or 
apprehensions of this kind have been expressed on 
the floor of Congress. Such suggestions we trust are 
unfounded. Our enemies alone could have made 
them. It is to be lamented that any colour has ever 
been furnished for such alarms. It cannot be con- 
cealed that in this state, existing difficulties, and the 
apparent indications of greater ones, have produced 
instances of excitement, violence and indiscretion, 
which form serious claims on our attention. Could 
legislators be agreed, all would be tranquillized from 
without. Would not such an achievement be wor- 
thy an united effort, a*nd reward the labours of a 



'<5'0&E'RN0UR's SPEECH. 11 

whole session ? The times call for union, confidence 
and mutual forbearance and accommodation. Will 
not a recollection of some prominent principles and 
facts in our history, with a legislative example, have 
this tendency, among our citizens ? May we not 
avail ourselves of this opportunity to review, in a 
summary manner, the situation in which we are 
placed, and the dangers to which we are exposed ? 

If ever a forgetfulness of pastdissentions, and joint 
efforts for the common interest, were necessary, they 
are so at this moment. Will not each citizen deter- 
mine for himself, that no personal gratification shall 
stand in the way of any arrangement, which will con- 
centrate the general will, and direct its strength for 
our country's safety ? For one I am prepared for 
this measure of accord and devotion to the exigency 
of the crisis, or my heart deceives me. Union is eve- 
ry thing ; it is our strength, our numbers, our re- 
sources. If we must have conflicts, let them be with 
foreign enemies. If war, let it be by the whole peo- 
ple, as one man, in defence of their violated rights. 
Let not a particle of our means be wasted in party or 
individual contentions. 

It cannot be necessary, nor would it be beneficial, 
to review in detail the continued aggravated injuries 
and insults which have been heaped upon us by the 
warring powers of Europe. The aggregate of our 
wrongs have been great indeed. The countervailing 
measures of our national government, produced by 
these aggressions, are generally known. The recent 
communications of publick documents, and the able 
and repeated disquisitions on these topicks, as pub- 
lished to the world, explain principles and facts be- 
yond the utility of further elucidation. 

Although our commercial intercourse and national 
defence is, from necessity and the soundest policy, 
confined to the United States, yet it is not unbecom- 
ing any member of the Union, to add its concurring 
energies to national measures, or, with fairness and 
moderation, to question their justness or policy, while 






12 governour's speech. 

they are pending and ripening for adoption. But with 
governments as with individuals, there are stages 
when questions can no longer be usefully open to con- 
troversy and opposition ; stages when an end must be 
put to debate, and a decision thence resulting be re- 
spected by its prompt and faithful execution, or go- 
vernment loses its existence, and the people are 
ruined. Are we not in this stage of the great ques- 
tions of foreign aggressions, embargo, non-intercourse, 
national defence, and other means of safety, deemed 
necessary by those intrusted with the final disposal 
of these objects ? A balanced government and its 
authorities, capable only of executing the deliberate 
volitions of a real majority of the citizens, constitut- 
ed and directed by known and fixed principles, es- 
tablished by and proceeding from themselves, is so 
safe, so reasonable, and so beyond every thing else 
essential to their own liberty and happiness, that its 
hazard or interruption cannot be contemplated but 
with distress. To such a government, foreign na- 
tions, with the unprincipled and desperate, may be 
hostile ; but our virtuous citizens, sensible of its 
blessings, will yield to any sacrifice for its support. 
At no times has its administration, however wise and 
happy, been satisfactory to all our citizens. This 
was not to be expected. Its impartiality, justice, 
forbearance and pacifick policy have been no securi- 
ty against violence, injustice and depredation on our 
rights of person, property and sovereignty by the bel- 
ligerents. Acts of insult, rapine and plunder have 
been multiplied upon us and pressed us to the very 
wail. D:>es further retreat and much further for- 
bearance consist with the spirit and genius of Ame- 
ricans ? Yet we trust the continuance of peace, with 
its inestimable blessings, is not altogether hopeless. 
The aggressing nations may yet be made to listen to 
the dictates of their own interest, and spare us the 
dreaded calamities of war. If not, there is a point 
in national sensibility, as in the feelings of man, 
where patience and submission end. Beyond this is 



GOVERNOUR^S SPEECH. 13 

degradation, destruction and death. This point is, 
when suffering forbearance involves a surrender of 
honour, property, and the power of self-government. 
How near we have approached to this period, or how 
fast we are approximating, is not for us to determine. 
Such considerations ought with confidence, as they 
may with safety, remain where the constitution has 
placed them. Congress, with an united people, may 
still avert the threatened evil. Pacifick wisdom may 
yet be better than weapons of war. And should it 
become necessary to cast the die, we may be assur- 
ed our representatives, participating in all the trials, 
burthens and sufferings imposed on others, will not 
incautiously precipitate the throw. 

Whence then the causes of jealousy, distrust, alter- 
cation and bitter aspersion of some of our citizens ? 
Whence then the ever to be regretted indiscretions, 
suddenness and individual rashness, that have de- 
nounced our national government and wounded our 
ow r n ? Under a general pressure, however necessary, 
excitements are easily produced. The effects of na- 
tional measures have fallen, and will fall more se- 
verely, on some descriptions of citizens and portions 
of the community than others. This is unavoidable. 
Ship owners aud the New England states may have 
been the greatest sufferers. But a necessary ine- 
quality, in the effect of measures, furnishes no ob- 
jection to their justice or their policy. All agree 
something w T as necessary to be done. Had other 
measures been adopted, they probably would but 
have produced another description of evils, not have 
diminished the aggregate. It was not to have been 
expected that the United States could be exempted 
from disasters, w 7 hen causes were in operation, which 
have involved half the world in the greatest. We in 
some measure know the effects of past arrangements, 
but can never know what would have been the re- 
sults of different ones. If our privations have pre- 
served a portion of our property, our peace, and the 
opportunity of yet selecting between alliances, peace 



14 GOVERNOuVs SPEECH. 

and war, are Ave certain the price has been too great ? 
It has been the unenviable and arduous task of 
our rulers to collect the diversified sentiments 
of their constituents, on facts, and to assimilate and 
concentrate them, as far as possible, to an according 
system, predicated on the prevailing opinion. By 
what other principle, by what better rule, can socie- 
ty act? If the degree, the kind and the time for ac- 
tion must wait for unanimity, our rights would nev- 
er be defended and our country would be ruined. 
By the voice of the majority alone can society exist 
for a moment. To oppose it, is to oppose a vital 
movement of the body politick. To triumph over 
it, is to conquer ourselves and render us a prey to 
any and every invader. A government of the mi- 
nority is a government of anarchy and confusion, a 
dissolution of all principle and of all authority. Who 
can contemplate such a state of things but with 
horrour ? V^ho can lend it even his silent counte- 
nance? Are not liberty, safety and property, our 
dearest rights and dearest enjoyments, the creatures 
of law, upheld by its power and rendered sacred by 
its energies? If government languishes and fails, 
will not these blessings languish and perish also ? 
Who does not know, in the range of excited passions, 
broken loose from legal restraints, property is often 
fatal to its owner, virtue to its possessor, and family 
blessings an invitation to the hand of the destroyer ? 
When beholding in the mirrourof past times and dis- 
tant ages the black and frightful atrocities of furious 
and ungoverned men, amidst the wrecks of civil es- 
tablishments, will not thoughtfulness, in the language 
of our departed patriot, "frown indignantly upon the 
first dawning of every attempt toalienate one portion 
of our country from the rest, or to enfeeble the sacred 
ties which now link together its various parts }" 
Frown upon every suggestion of a non-execution of the 
law, resistance or abandonment of the Union ? Such 
suggestions are not less a libel upon the morals and 
understanding of the great body of the New England 



GOVERNOUIt's SPEECH. 15 

people, than on their patriotism. Their character is 
not marked with propensities to outrage, disorder and 
blood. Such a reproach must be repelled. Our ci- 
tizens may differ on the necessity and wisdom of ex- 
isting or projected measures ; hut for support of their 
government, their rights and their independence, the 
majority is immense. 

Will not the advocates for town meetings, the au- 
thors of resolutions, be induced calmly to weigh the 
spirit and principles of their opposition, and to re- 
flect further on the tendency of their measures ? Are 
they prepared to pull down the splendid edifice erect- 
ed by the wisdom and valour of their fathers, and to 
bury themselves under the ruins of liberty ? Are not 
all their privations and sufferings notorious to their 
rulers, and from necessity yielded to, with parental 
sympathy and painful sensibility ? While a large 
majority of the people of the Union, of their national 
representatives, of the state legislatures, of their towns 
and counties, seriously believe that the existing mea- 
sures are essential to our safety and the best for the 
whole, can their opposers wish them to be abandon- 
ed, and a surrender of the government into their 
hands ? And will they yield it, in turn, to other 
towns and sections of the country, that may make a 
similar claim ? Would they wish in these perilous 
times to see our peace, liberty and social blessings at 
the feet of a party ? Would they wish to break 
those ties which unite all to the common centre, a 
deposit for the publick opinion, publick confidence 
and publick power ? Such a secession from the sa- 
lutary conceptions of our constitutions and the fun- 
damental principles of our government would be 
more to be deprecated and outweigh in mischief the 
most exaggerated evils of the embargo. 

The cultivated reports that the administration and 
the southern people are hostile to commerce, and 
unfriendly to the eastern states, are calculated to 
produce uneasiness, jealousies and dissentions. The 
evidence of such facts I have never seen. My con- 



16 GOVERNOUR^S SPEECH. 

victions, under some advantages for observation, 
have been otherwise. I question not the sincerity 
of the opinion of others. The principles and the 
publick conduct of our rulers are the fair objects of a 
manly and publick spirited scrutiny, tor the purpo- 
ses of merited censure or approbation, their continu- 
ance or removal from office in the prescribed forms. 
The proof of their talents, zeal and labours to serve 
and render their country great and happy, are before 
the publick. Their discussion with truth and fair- 
ness would be salutary and agreeable to the genius 
and spirit of our government. But misrepresenta- 
tions, groundless suspicions, violent and indiscrimi- 
nate abuse, unless checked, must end in opposition 
to the law, a contempt for its authority, and dis- 
tracted breaches of the publick peace. 

If legal animadversions on incendiary and libellous 
publications would be thought by some, dangerous to 
the liberty of speech and the press ; a strong publick 
opinion, favourable to government, would be equal- 
ly efficacious to its authority and to discountenance 
its opposers. — Shall such aid be withheld ? Or must 
false views, misstatements and groundless alarms, in- 
dicative of extreme distrust and danger from the 
representatives of our own election, the govern- 
ment of our own choice, hurry virtuous and well 
meaning men into acts pregnant with awful conse- 
quences ? It is said measures are unnecessary, un- 
constitutional, oppressive and tyrannical. Is it cer- 
tain this is correct ? Are citizens in the streets, in 
town meetings, in multitudinous assemblies, citizens 
pressed with deep personal interests and excited 
from erroneous conceptions, capable of deciding 
on great, complicated constitutional questions ? 
Hence our peril. Hence distraction and confusion 
in society. Hence encouragement to the enemy. 
Are such citizens more worthy of confidence than 
their rulers ? Are they better instructed, or do they 
possess higher means of information ? Are our ru- 
lers blinded by their interests or impassioned by 



governour's speech. 17 

their sufferings ? They decide against their interests, 
and their sufferings are in common with their con- 
stituents.—- Are they actuated by prejudice or stim- 
ulated by resentments ? They have nothing person- 
al. Their insults and injuries have been the insults 
and injuries of their country. What then is to be 
done ? States, towns and individuals have their fa- 
vourite projects. The Union have theirs. Thus 
jarring, are we, with augmented resentments, to rush 
together in ruinous collisions ? Are we with mu- 
tual hatreds to rend asunder the bands which have 
united us ? to throw from our vitals the shield 
which protects them ? 

A good government is Heaven's richest gift. Past 
events will shew the worth of ours. Calamities 
formed and introduced our federal constitution. Its 
adoption, the desired and long suspended hope of 
our citizens, was hailed, and truly hailed, as the sal- 
vation of our country. Experience has exalted its 
value, and disclosed more and more its practical ex- 
cellencies. It is worthy the wisdom and labours of 
its authors, and merits every sacrifice for its preser- 
vation. Our history which preceded its adoption 
furnishes examples which are fraught with admoni- 
tions. Our government was humbled and ineffi- 
cient. Our union a thread. Our commerce unre-? 
gulated and unprotected. Our revenue nothing. 
Our faith perfidy. Our credit bankruptcy ; and our 
privations the want of every thing. Individuals 
were embarrassed ; grievances complained of ; our 
rulers censured ; town and county resolutions pub- 
lished ; combinations formed ; a non-compliance 
with the laws announced ; government opposed ; 
property sold for one third its value ; tender laws 
made ; the insolvent imprisoned, and our courts of 
justice stopped. But government must then be sup- 
ported and its laws be respected. Troops were de- 
tached, armed men patroled our streets, and we saw 
them with a joy inspired by the idea of protection 
and security, from the execution of the law and the 
c 



18 governour's speech. 

energies of its officers. Is the preventative against 
all these and worse calamities now to be abandoned, 
and these and worse ones to be invoked to afflict 
us ? 

Should the northern, the middle or the southern 
states, should Virginia, or could Massachusetts, any 
of her towns or citizens, dictate measures to Con- 
gress, and by opposition or a convulsed state of 
things force their adoption : then, indeed, would one 
state have obtained a disastrous triumph over the 
United States ! Then we should have conquered 
the Union, then should we have prostrated its gov- 
ernment, and have trampled under our feet the last 
reserve of national power. Could the opposition 
prevail, a part coerce the whole, our rights and our 
strength would be scattered to the winds. As a na- 
tion we should perish, as freemen be lost. Our pal- 
ladium, our ark, our national bulwarks, would be 
shattered and broken to atoms. Then might their 
fragments^oar by the licenses of our enemies. Then 
might we single handed meet the crisis, and buffet- 
ing the destruction threatened from the deep, con- 
flict with the clouds above, which, in angry collision, 
are ready to break on our heads. But this can ne- 
ver be. Society is yet strong Americans, virtuous 
and enlightened, Americans, steady and determined, 
will continue their confidence in their efforts. They 
will rally round the national constitution, cling to 
their government, and should it be driven to the 
edge of a precipice, keep their hold in the extremi- 
ty of its exit, and sink with it into the awful abyss. 

The importance and the interesting and perilous 
nature of the crisis, has compelled me, thus long, to 
dwell upon it, and to hope from the wisdom of our 
legislature, some reconciling expedient to quiet the 
agitated minds of our citizens. 

Is it the idea that there are no dangers; that it 
can be said. Thus far shall the incitement come and 
no farther, and here shall its effects be stayed ? Let 
us not be deceived, This is the prerogative of God 



GOVERNOUR^S SPEECH. |g 

alone. Are we ripe, are we prepared to proclaim to 
a suffering and an enslaved world, that unhappy man 
has made his last disposing effort for the support of 
a free government — that the most promising experi- 
ment has so soon failed — that liberty, the legitimate 
offspring of law, the favourite child of government, 
has been expelled its hoped for resting place, driven 
from its last retreat, and banished the world ? Can 
we not wait with magnanimous patience, and en- 
dure privations a few months longer, and give to go- 
vernment one fair, unimpeded experiment of their 
measures on foreign nations ? Will not the evils and 
the objections from existing measures lie as strong 
against non-intercourse, war, or any other arrange- 
ment for national defence ? Are we ready to sur- 
render all, to export our government with our pro- 
duce, and to import foreign despotism with foreign 
goods ? The farmer's merchandize and his ships are 
in the country. Mine are there, and I should ra- 
ther sink them than government should be sunk. 
Without government they are not mine ; nor family 
nor personal protection, nor the opportunity of fu- 
ture acquisitions or future happiness. 

At all times it is pleasing to contemplate the pa- 
triotism, order and discipline of our militia, to which 
the constitution looks with confidence for the de- 
fence of our country. The last autumnal reviews 
have been spoken of with pride by gentlemen of mil- 
itary skill. An establishment so safe, so economical, 
so preferable to a standing army, in time of peace, 
can never want the patronage of a provident legisla- 
ture. So long as this system shall be deemed sus- 
ceptible of improvement, it will be the favourite ob- 
ject for the labours of the representatives of a free 
people. I am not sufficiently conversant with the 
principles or details of military arrangements to de- 
cide on their defects or to point out their remedies. 
To legislators of military science and experience 
this subject peculiarly addresses itself. They will 
know whether there is the greatest aptitude and 



20 GOVERNOUR 3 S SPEECH. 

efficiency in all its parts, and whether it is capable of 
moving and being moved, in harmony, without mor- 
tifying delays or dangerous collisions. 

An evil of magnitude is spreading its calamitous 
effects over every portion of our Commonwealth. 
The accumulation of depreciated and counterfeited 
bank bills, with all their fraudulent and demoraliz- 
ing action on society and the habits of individuals, 
are not, perhaps, less to be deprecated than a tem- 
porary suspension of a foreign market, for the pro- 
duce of our farms. The impositions practised, the 
inability to lose what had been honestly taken, the- 
temptation to pass, with the frequency of doing it, 
and the impunity with which it may be done, are 
fast breaking down the moral sense, and eradicating 
from the minds of citizens that sublime reverence 
for justice, those lively repulsive principles to fraud, 
which are the ends, the fruits and perfection of mor- 
al cultivation. The spurious and the genuine are 
indiscriminately passed, under the false apology that 
they were honestly received, and that the bad are 
not certainly known to be such. Indeed, a know- 
ledge of the characteristicks of the various bills, of 
all the banks, in this and the neighbouring States, 
circulating among us, is a science too nice, exten- 
sive and complicated for the great body of our citi- 
zens to learn. Will it not be an object worthy the 
attention of the legislature, to protect their constitu- 
ents against so serious a depredation on their proper- 
ty and morals ? Would not the confining banks to a 
compliance with the express or implied principles of 
their respective institutions, and obliging them all to 
issue bills of the same figure and device, with the ex- 
clusion from circulation of all foreign bills, which 
should not be issued in conformity to such a system, 
cure very many of the evils ? To the experience and 
providence of the legislature our citizens look for a 
remedy. 

No crisis should arrest the progress of the arts and 
sciences, or stay the fostering hand of improvement. 



GOVERNOUR^S SPEECH. 21 

Our most considerable societies, for these purposes, 
were, to the honour of their founders and our coun- 
try, established during our struggles for national ex- 
istence. Are not the meritorious examples of en- 
couragement given to manufactures, in the other 
states, worthy the imitation of this, especially of an 
adjoining one, which, under the liberal auspices of a 
publick spirited citizen, is becoming famous for the 
manufacturing of woolen cloth, from a superiour and 
an improved breed of imported sheep ? Would it not 
be useful to countenance mechanical improvements 
and fabrications, by exemptions from taxes and by 
extending the principles of our laws, respecting the 
overflowing of lands by grist and saw mills, to cot- 
ton factories and other labour saving machines, de- 
pending on water courses for their movements ? 
Would not the proceeds of the sale of a few eastern 
townships, vested in a society, as a perpetual fund, 
for the promotion of manufactures, charged with the 
appropriation of its interest, in premiums and other 
encouragement to ingenious manufacturers, be seed 
sowed in good ground, which would produce, to the 
present and succeeding generations, an harvest of an 
hundred fold ? 

Facilities to husbandry, commerce and manufac- 
tures are good roads. Most of our great ones are 
now in such convenient and unalterable directions, 
as will probably command an increasing travel for 
centuries yet to come. Would not a law protecting 
and encouraging to individuals to border them with 
trees give ornament to the country, comfort and re- 
freshment to the traveller, fuel to the planters, and 
gratification to all ? 

To cherish the interest of literature, the sciences 
and their seminaries, especially the University at 
Cambridge, publick schools, private societies and 
publick institutions, rewards and immunities for the 
promotion of agriculture, arts, sciences and manufac- 
tures, cannot be less a compliance with the inclina- 
tions of a Legislature of Massachusetts than with 



22 ANSWER OF THE SENATE. 

that duty which is, at all periods, made binding on 
it by the constitution under which it acts. 

The particular state of our militia, ordnance, mili- 
tary stores and supplies will appear from the detailed 
report and returns of the adjutant and quartermaster 
generals, which shall be communicated by special 
message so soon as they shall be prepared. 

Gentlemen of the Senate, and 

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, 

For your patience and indulgence accept of my 
sincere acknowldgements ; and may that wisdom 
which is from above, which is profitable to direct, 
gentle and easy to be entreated, lead in our councils 
and govern our conduct through the session. 

LEVI LINCOLN. 



ANSWER OF THE SENATE. 

May it please your Honour, 

WHILE the Senate lament the solemn dispensa- 
tion of Divine Providence which has deprived the 
commonwealth of its chief magistrate, they earnest- 
ly beseech the Father of Lights to endue you with 
wisdom to discern, and fidelity to pursue, the path 
of duty, in the discharge of the high and responsi- 
ble trust, which in consequence of this event the 
constitution has devolved upon you. Assisted in 
council by men distinguished for their talents, expe- 
rience and integrity, we trust, that while they will 
share with you the responsibility, their advice will 
have a proper influence in the direction of the mea- 
sures of the executive department. 



ANSWER OF THE SENATE. 23 

Deeply impressed by the perilous and distressing 
aspect of our publick affairs, we assure Your Honour 
of " our best exertions for the general welfare." 

We are happy to accord with you " that our ene- 
mies alone could have represented the New England 
states as prepared for opposition to the authority of 
the law, and ripening for a secession from the Union." 
We believe with Your Honour, that " such sugges- 
tions" in regard to New-England " are unfounded." 
" It cannot" indeed " be concealed that in this state 
existing difficulties, and apparent indications of great- 
er ones," have, as in a former memorable period of 
our history, roused the spirit of our citizens ; but we 
trust with Your Honour " that their character is not 
marked with propensities to outrage, disorder and 
blood." On the contrary, that as they correctly un- 
derstand their duties, they will steadily and reso- 
lutely maintain their rights. 

The people of New England perfectly understand 
the distinction between the constitution and the ad- 
ministration. They are as sincerely attached to the 
former as any section of the United States. They 
may be put under the ban of the empire, but they 
have no intention of abandoning the Union. And 
we have the pleasure explicitly to declare our full 
concurrence with Your Honour, "that such sugges- 
tions are not less a libel upon the great body of the 
New England people, than on their patriotism." 

As the government of the Union is a confederation 
of equal and independent states with limited pow- 
ers, we agree with Your Honour " that it is not un- 
becoming any member of the Union with firmness 
and moderation to question the justness or policy 
of measures while they are pending and ripening for 
adoption ;" and we learn with concern from Your 
Honour, "that there are stages when questions" — 
without even excepting questions involving unalien- 
able rights — " can be no longer open to controversy 
and opposition"—" stages when an end must be put 
to debate, and a decision thence resulting be respect- 



24 ANSWER OF THE SENATE. 

ed by its prompt and faithful execution, or govern- 
ment loses its existence, and the people are ruined/ 5 

Even if Your Honour's principle were correct, can 
it be imagined that " we are" (as Your Honour is 
pleased to intimate) " now in this stage, on the great 
questions of non-intercourse and national defence ?" 
These measures are " still pending and ripening for 
adoption." Is it then " unbecoming" tor this state 
to question their "justness or policy i" 

But with great deference to Your Honour, we ap- 
prehend, that this principle, if carried into effect, 
would render our free government a despotism, and 
bring inevitable " ruin upon the people." If we ap- 
ply it to one of the cases mentioned by Your Honour, 
the embargo, the principle will present itself in some 
of its deformity. It is well known that the act, im- 
posing the embargo, passed the Senate of the United 
States in the space of a few hours, and passed all the 
forms of legislation in four days, after that measure 
was recommended by the President. 

The people of this state, therefore, could not by 
any possibility have had an opportunity " to ques- 
tion its justness or policy," and even senators, in 
Congress, were not allowed the time they requested 
for that purpose. — And are the people of Massachu- 
setts to understand, that " a decision" of this na- 
ture " must be respected by its prompt and faithful 
execution ?" that it is too late for them to question 
its " justness or policy ?" Are they to believe that 
the " stage" has passed, and that indeed nothing re- 
mains for them but quiet submission ? We owe it to 
ourselves and to the people distinctly to deny this 
doctrine, at once novel and pernicious. 

An administration may become corrupt, but the 
people will remain pure. We are therefore . con- 
strained with great respect to express our mingled 
regret and astonishment, that Your Honour should 
seem to doubt the capacity of the people to decide 
on questions involving their unalienable rights. — 
Your Honour is pleased to ask " it citizens in the 






ANSWER OF THE SENATE. %5 

streets — in town meetings, in multitudinous assem- 
blies, pressed with deep personal interests, are capa- 
ble of deciding on great, complicated and constitu- 
tional questions ?" and to observe that from hence 
our peril. 

May we be permitted to ask, who shall decide 
when the publick functionaries abuse their trust ? — - 
We need not inform Your Honour, that the meetings 
to which you allude, have been attended by men se- 
cond to none in the United States for their legal and 
political knowledge — for their love of order- — and for 
their patriotism: many of whom have grown grey in 
the publick service and confidence — many of them 
now holding high and important offices in the state ; 
and that these meetings have been conducted with 
great order and decorum. 

Can such assemblies of the citizens merit censure 
in a republican government? but you will please to 
permit us to remark, that your animadversion upon 
these meetings, appears the more extraordinary, be- 
cause in another part of your communication, Your 
Honour is pleased to observe, "that it had been the 
arduous task of our rulers to collect the diversified 
sentiments of their constituents, and to assimilate 
and concentrate them as far as possible to an accord- 
ing system predicated on the prevailing opinion" — a 
measure indeed very proper, but which could only 
•be effectual, by the free interchange of opinion, and 
those very meetings of the citizens from which Your 
Honour seems afterwards to apprehend so much clan- 
ger. Your Honour may be assured that we " ques- 
tion not the sincerity of the opinion " which you 
have been pleased to intimate, of the incapacity of 
the people — -But you will permit us to declare, that 
upon their knowledge of their rights and duties, and 
their firmness and perseverance in maintaining them, 
our hope is placed. They will ultimately form a 
just decision. Hence our ark — not u our peril." 

We beg leave to observe, that those rights, which 
the people have not chosen to part with, should be 

D 



26 ANSWER OP THE SENATE. 

exercised by them with delicacy — only in times of 
great danger — not with " distraction and confu- 
sion" — not to oppose the laws, but to prevent acts 
being respected as laws, which are unwarranted by 
the commission given to their rulers. On such oc- 
casions, passive submission would on the part of the 
people, be a breach of their allegiance, and on our 
part treachery and perjury. For the people are 
bound by their allegiance, and we are additionally 
bound by our oaths to support the constitution of the 
state — and we are responsible to the people, and to 
our God, for the faithful execution of the trust. 

But Your Honour is pleased to observe, that " the 
Union have their favourite projects — states, towns 
and individuals have theirs;" and to inquire whether, 
" thus jarring with augmented resentments, we are 
to rush together in ruinous collisions." 

Can it be necessary to remind Your Honour that 
the aggressor is responsible for all the consequences, 
which you have been pleased so pathetically to de- 
scribe ? — that the people have not sent us here to 
surrender their rights, but to maintain and defend 
them ? — and, that we have no authority to dispense 
with the duties thus solemnly imposed ? Your Hon- 
our has described " the calamities which introdu- 
ced our federal constitution," with great truth. 
" Our government was humbled and inefficient — 
our union a thread — our commerce unregulated and 
unprotected — our revenue nothing — our faith perfi- 
dy — our credit bankruptcy— our privations the want 
of every thing — individuals were embarrassed," &c. 
" and our courts of justice stopped, &c." 

Can it be necessary to remind Your Honour, that 
the administration of Washington produced precise- 
ly the reverse of the picture which you have been 
pleased to draw so much to the life? 

And will you permit us to ask iij our turn, but 
in Your Honour's words, " Whence then the causes 
of jealousy, distrust, altercations and bitter asper- 
sion" of that great and good man, and upon all who 



ANSWER OF THE SENATE. $7 

were attached to his measures ? " Whence the ever 
to be regretted indiscretions, suddenness and indi- 
vidual rashness which denounced" an administra- 
tion, that safely guided the people to prosperity and 
glory, amidst great and impending dangers ? Were 
these calumniators " more worthy of confidence," 
"better instructed," or did they " possess higher 
means of information" — were they less " blinded by 
their interest," less "actuated by prejudice, or stim- 
ulated by resentments," than the political saviour of 
his country and his compatriots ? Whence then " the 
misrepresentations, groundless suspicions, violent 
and indiscriminate abuse," thrown upon men who 
had a right to call for " union" in support of their 
measures — upon men who had given to the publick 
" the proof of their talents, zeal and labours to serve 
and render their country great and happy ?" 

But the present administration, although aware of 
the " effects of past arrangements," had not the 
wisdom or magnanimity to adopt them. They have 
ventured upon new expedients — and are responsible 
to their country for the distressing "results." 

Your Honour is pleased to inquire " if we could 
not wait with magnanimous patience, and endure 
privations a few months longer, and give to govern- 
ment one fair, unimpeded experiment, upon foreign 
nations." 

The administration has indeed been "pressed to 
the very wail," and we know not how much " fur- 
ther" they would "retreat" if they could. 

But, may it please Your Honour, we have seen as 
little of " spirit" as of policy in the embargo sys- 
tem. We know that the emperour approves, if he 
did not dictate, the measure. We know that Great 
Britain receives immense advantage from the surren- 
der to her of the whole trade of the world ; and we 
cannot imagine why the people should be called 
upon to "endure privations" any longer, unless the 
administration, having failed to operate on the fears 
or interests of the " warring powers," expect ere 
long to obtain some relief from their compassion. 



28 ANSWER OF THE SENATE. 

We most heartily concur with Your Honour, " that 
there is a point in national sensibility, as in the feel- 
ings of men, where patience and submission end/' 
And when that crisis shall arrive, Your Honour may 
rest assured that the people of New England " will 
(as you have been pleased to say) rally round the na- 
tional constitution." But, sir, they will not "cling" 
to an administration which has brought them to the 
brink of destruction ; they will not " keep their hold 
in the extremity of its exit," nor " sink with it into 
the frightful abyss." No, sir ! the people of Massa- 
chusetts will not willingly become the victims of 
fruitless experiment. 

We shall'be ready at all times, with you, " to che- 
rish the interests of literature, especially the Univer- 
sity at Cambridge ;" and the sentiments which Your 
Honour is pleased to advance, that " no crisis should 
arrest the progress of the arts and sciences/' meets 
our concurrence. 

We shall endeavour to find a remedy for the "ac- 
cumulation of depreciated and counterfeit bank 
bills," to which Your Honour has been pleased to call 
our attention. 

Touching the militia — we cannot conceal our re- 
gret that the administration of the general govern- 
ment has not discovered that dependence upon " an 
establishment," which Your Honour is pleased justly 
to observe is " so preferable to a standing army in 
time of peace," " and to which the constitution looks 
with confidence for the defence of our country/' 
We regard that institution at once with pride and 
■with confidence — and we agree with Your Honour 
that it " can never want the patronage of a provident 
legislature ;" surely not in times of peril like these. 
Your Honour was pleased to anticipate a difference 
of opinion, but we beg you to " rest assured of our 
solicitude, assiduity and best endeavours to promote 
what from" our "own convictions shall appear 
most conducive to the good of the whole." And we 
join with Your Honour in the wish that the " wisdom 



ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 29 

which is from above, which is gentle and easy to be 
entreated," may " lead in our councils ;" but we fer- 
vently pray moreover, that not only our conduct, but 
that of the general government, may be directed by 
that wisdom, which is also "pure — peaceable-— full of 
good fruits — without partiality and without hypocri- 
sy." 



><3>4fr<»< 



ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 



May it please Your Honour, 

THE House of Representatives view with deep 
and serious regret the very peculiar circumstances 
under which they have assembled, and with fearful 
anxiety direct their thoughts to that Being, without 
whose aid the portentous aspect of our publick affairs 
cannot be changed. In a season of political calamity, 
when the hand of the general government presses 
with peculiar rigour upon the people of Massachu- 
setts, the known patriotism of her sons becomes a 
sure pledge for the display of those virtues which the 
times require. At such a moment the House of Re- 
presentatives will investigate with patience and cir- 
cumspection the causes which ha*ve led to the exist- 
ing and threatened evils, and will endeavour to ap- 
ply such remedies as the powers confided to that 
branch of the state legislature will constitutionally 
warrant. 

The afflicting dispensation of Divine Providence, 
which has deprived this Commonwealth of its late 
commander in chief, cannot be more sincerely de- 
plored by Your Honour, than it is sensibly felt by the 
House of Representatives. Elevated to the chair of 
state, in opposition to the political sentiments of a 



30 ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 

majority of the legislature, we are happy to declare, 
the late Governour Sullivan, in the discharge of his 
high and important trust, appeared rather desirous to 
be the governour of Massachusetts, than the leader 
of a party, or the vindictive champion of its cause. 

We receive with respectful attention the assurance 
of Your Honour's " solicitude, assiduity and best en- 
deavours to promote what shall appear most condu- 
cive to the good of the whole ;" and pursuing the fair 
and obvious construction of the national and state 
constitutions as a rule of action, we apprehend that 
it is impossible Your Honour should furnish any oc- 
casion for the exertion of candour or indulgence on 
our part. 

We are unwilling to believe that any division of 
sentiment can exist among the New England states 
or their inhabitants as to the obvious infringement of 
rights secured to them by the constitution of the 
United States ; and still more so, that any men can 
be weak or wicked enough to construe a disposition 
to support that constitution, and preserve the Union 
by a temperate and firm opposition to acts which 
are repugnant to the first principles and purposes of 
both, into a wish to secede from the other states. 
If a secession has been conceived by the states or 
'people referred to in Your Honour's communication, 
it is unknown to the House of Representatives, who 
absolutely disclaim any participation therein, or hav- 
ing afforded the least colour ior such a charge. If 
ever such suspicions existed, they can have risen only 
in the minds of those who must be sensible that they 
had adopted, and were persisting in, measures which 
had driven the people to desperation, by infringing 
rights which the citizens of Massachusetts conceive 
to be unalienable, and which they fondly hoped had 
been inviolably secured to them by the federal com- 
pact. 

The legislature and people of Massachusetts ever 
have been, and now are, firmly and sincerely attached 
to the union of the states, and .there is no sacrifice 



■ 



V 



ANSWEH OP THE HOUSE. 31 

they have not been, and are not now, willing to sub- 
mit to, in order to preserve the same, according to its 
original purpose. Of this truth Your Honour must 
be convinced. We do not appeal to the unvarying 
conduct of our citizens during the glorious adminis- 
trations of Washington and Adams, when the patri- 
otick endeavours of our statesmen, under the most 
perplexing embarrassments, pursued and secured the 
interests and honour of the nation ; — -but we can ap- 
peal to the patience with which our fellow citizens 
have borne the administration of those, whose boast 
it has been to proscribe all the measures of their pre- 
decessors, and most of the men whose talents and 
virtues had assisted in securing to the United States 
the blessings of a free government. The people in 
this section of the country had undoubtedly flattered 
themselves, that the liberal confidence which they 
had afforded to the professions of their rulers, would 
induce a regard to their interests ; and when experi- 
ence has shown the incompetency of their measures 
to the honour or safety of the country, they would 
have had the magnanimity to correct their errors. 
It ought not to be matter of surprise that men who, 
either on the floor of Congress or elsewhere, have 
adopted measures hostile to the Union, and subver- 
sive of its principles, should endeavour to brand with 
the calumny you mention the efforts of those who 
sincerely aim at preserving the constitution, by de- 
monstrating the tendency of their acts, and who stu- 
diously exert themselves to prevent a dissolution of 
the federal compact, by stating the dangers of such 
an event : an event which this house cannot fail to 
deprecate as the greatest of eyils, and to prevent 
which they will leave no constitutional means unes- 
sayed. But it would be greatly to be deplored, if 
any thing in Your Honour's address could be con- 
strued in to a sanction, by the chief magistrate of this 
commonwealth, of a charge so unfounded and a slan- 
der so unmerited. 



32 ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 

It is with much pleasure the House of Represen- 
tatives receive Your Honours declaration, " that no 
personal gratification shall stand in the way of any 
arrangement, which shall concentrate the general will 
and direct its strength for our country's safety." In 
this declaration so honourable to yourself, sir, the 
House of Representatives most promptly and cordial- 
ly concur, and so far as constitutionally they may, 
sacredly pledge themselves to Your Honour in de- 
fence of all those rights which have been violated 
abroad, or usurped at home. 

The House of Representatives agree in sentiment 
with Your Honour, that " it cannot be necessary to 
review in detail the continued and aggravated insults 
and injuries which have been heaped upon us by the 
warring powers of Europe ;" yet it may not be im- 
proper to remark, that when a government, in the 
first instance, from an overweening partiality to one 
power, an undue prejudice against another, or a tim- 
id and pusillanimous policy towards all nations, sur- 
renders essential rights without a struggle, the nation 
over which it rules becomes the victim of aggression 
from without, and of imposition from within. The 
partial developement of publick documents is but too 
conclusive on this point. 

That the regulation of our commercial intercourse 
and our national defence are most wisely confided to 
the general government, is a truth so plain and pal- 
pable, that we should hold it unnecessary to be re- 
peated here, were it not for the purpose of concur- 
ring with Your Honour in the justice of the senti- 
ment ; but the libertv of discussing the measures of 
our general government, with freedom and firmness, 
though with fairness and moderation, is a right the 
House of Representatives never will relinquish. 

We cannot agree with Your Honour, that in a free 
country there is any stage at which the constitution- 
ality of an act may no longer be open to discussion 
and debate ; at least it is only upon the high road to 
despotism that such stages can be found. At such 



, 



ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 33 

a point the government, undertaking to extend its 
powers beyond the limits of the constitution, dege- 
nerates into tyranny — The people, if temperate and 
firm, will, we confidently rely, eventually triumph 
over such usurpations. Were it true, that the mea- 
sures of government once passed into an act, the 
constitutionality of that act is stamped with the seal 
of infallibility, and is no longer a subject for the de- 
liberation or remonstrance of the citizen, to what 
monstrous lengths might not an arbitrary and tyran- 
nical administration carry its power? It has only to 
pass through rapid readings and midnight sessions, 
without allowing time for reflection and debate, to 
the final enacting of a bill ; and before the people are 
even informed of the intentions of their rulers, their 
chains are rivetted, and the right of complaint deni- 
ed them. Were such a doctrine sound, what spe- 
cies of oppression might not be inflicted on the pros- 
trate liberties of our country ! If such a doctrine were 
true, our constitution would be nothing but a name 
—nay, worse, a fatal instrument to sanctify oppres- 
sion, and legalize the tyranny which inflicts it. 

Nothing but madness or imbecility could put at 
hazard the existence of a " balanced government, ca- 
pable of operating and providing for the publick 
good," unless the administration of that government, 
by its arbitrary impositions, had endangered or de- 
stroyed the very objects for the protection of which 
it had been instituted. Should such a case ever oc- 
cur, on the administration who should usurp pow T ers 
and violate such sacred obligations, must rest the 
odium of having hazarded a government " so safe, so 
reasonable, and so beyond every thing else essential 
to the liberty and happiness of our fellow-citizens." 

Although the history of the first twelve years of 
our federal government abundantly proves that no 
administration, however wise and happy, can be sat- 
isfactory to all our citizens, yet have the people, at 
all times, and under all administrations, an undoubt- 
ed right to insist that neither the letter nor the spir- 

E 



54 ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 

it of the constitution shall be violated. And most 
certainly the policy arid-capacity of that administra- 
tion may be questioned, which in a few years has 
reduced this great, active and enterprising nation 
from an unexampled height of commercial prosperity, 
to comparative poverty and idleness. Assuredly 
that administration, which meets aggression only 
with retirement and non-intercourse laws, never can 
acquire the confidence of a commercial people, and 
never will afford any security against violence, injus- 
tice and depredation. To the present administration 
is the country indebted for a system of measures as 
novel as it is imbecile, as weak against foreign na- 
tions as it is oppressive and ruinous to our own. 

The House of Representatives certainly have no 
disposition to assume the direction of those affairs, 
the management of which has been so properly con- 
fided to the general government; yet upon this oc- 
casion it may not be deemed improper to observe, 
that, from the scanty information which has been 
suffered to escape, they cannot discern in the situa- 
tion of our foreign relations, any difficulties or em- 
barrassments which have not heretofore been suc- 
cessfully encountered by former administrations of our 
government. During the administration of Wash- 
ington and Adams, circumstances of much greater 
political embarrassment were met with a steady eye, 
a firm and vigorous purpose. Negotiations with 
both the great contending powers of Europe were 
commenced, and by a close adherence to the just 
rights of our nation, with an active preparation to 
use force, when negotiation failed, the patriots of 
that day successfully repelled every unjust preten- 
sion, while they preserved the honour, as well as the 
resources and property, of their fellow citizens. The 
House of Representatives, therefore, cannot doubt 
that the same measures, resorted to with the same 
spirit and good faith, would effect now what they did 
then, the protection, instead of the annihilation, of 
our commerce — the preservation, instead of the aban- 
donment, of the nation's honour. 



ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 35 

It cannot be denied that jealousy and distrust have 
arisen among the people of Massachusetts, and much 
is it to be regretted that they have been so well 
founded. A system of policy ruinous to their inte- 
rests, and uncongenial to their enterprising spirit — a 
system for which the administration has yet, in our 
opinion, assigned no adequate reason, has borne most 
heavily and unequally on the northern and commer- 
cial states. For relief from this oppression the peo- 
ple fondly looked to the meeting of Congress ; but 
alas ! how fatally have their hopes been blasted ! 
Their humble prayers have been answered by an act 
so arbitrary and oppressive, that it violates the first 
principles of civil liberty, and the fundamental pro- 
visions of the constitution. At such a moment, and 
under such a pressure, when every thing which free- 
men hold dear is at stake, it cannot be expected, and 
it ought not to be wished, that they should suffer in 
silence. The House of Representatives cannot ad- 
mit that laws which operate unequally are unavoida- 
ble — the government, in their opinion, has no right 
to sacrifice the interests of one section of the Union 
to the prejudices, partialities or convenience of ano- 
ther. 

We perfectly agree with Your Honour in the ge- 
neral principle, that in a free government, the majo- 
rity must determine and decide upon all existing 
or projected measures. But it will be recollected 
that the decision of that majority, to be binding, 
must be constitutional and just. Government is 
formed for the security of the citizen and the protec- 
tion of his rights. Whether his liberty is infringed, 
his rights violated or unprotected, if not absolved 
from his allegiance, he may demand redress, and 
take all lawful measures to obtain it. 

It is impossible for the House of Representatives 
to follow the very wide and extended range of politi- 
cal remark through which it has pleased Your Ho- 
nour to expatiate. The limits which time and duty 
prescribe, necessarily confine our observations to a 



36 ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 

few of the most prominent features of Your Ho- 
nour's elaborate address. 

Those individual indiscretions, and that rashness of 
sentiment and action, which have so justly incurred 
Your Honour's censure, as opposing a vital movement 
of the body politick, appear to indicate with precision, 
that period of our federal history, in which an insurrec- 
tion, fomented by those who assumed to themselves 
exclusively the denomination of republicans, and aid- 
ed by the machinations of French intrigue, had nearly 
prostrated the national government. Thanks to the 
friends of the constitution, with the beloved Wash- 
ington at their head, they protected by their valour 
in the field, what their wisdom in the cabinet had 
created. We trust, sir, that there is now no danger 
of a repetition of those scenes of licentious riot and 
rebellion. We perfectly accord in sentiment with 
Your Honour, "that to suggest such things of New 
England is not less a libel on the morals and under- 
standing of its inhabitants, than on their patriotism f* 
"their character is not marked with propensities to dis- 
order, outrage and blood." If such characters exist 
any where in tht United States, they are not to be 
found among the peaceable and industrious citizens 
of New England, 

The early habits and constant practice of our fa- 
thers and ourselves have led us, on every great emer- 
gency, and on the pressure of political calamities, to 
resort to town meetings, wherein the general sense of 
the people might be collected. This practice, so 
wholesome and salutary, was one of the most influ- 
ential means employed in bringing about that glori- 
ous revolution which established our independence. 
It was against these meetings, therefore, that the 
strong arm of royal power was elevated, in the year 
seventeen hundred and seventy four, and they were 
prohibited under severe penalties. Had the British 
ministry of that day attended to the voice of the peo- 
ple so expressed, they would have avoided the evils 
which they had afterwards so much reason to de- 



ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 37 

plore. The expression of the publick sentiment has 
become necessary to counteract the errours and mis- 
representations of those who have falsely inculcated 
upon the administration of the general government, a 
belief, that the measures they were pursuing were sa- 
tisfactory to the people. From the suppression of 
these meetings would liberty have more to appre- 
hend than from any other cause whatever. From such 
a cause should we most dread "the overturning the 
splendid edifice erected by the wisdom and valour of 
our fathers." A privilege so wisely secured by our 
constitution, we cannot hesitate to declare, the citi- 
zens of Massachusetts will never resign. 

We are perfectly aware that "misrepresentations, 
groundless suspicions, violent and indiscriminate 
abuse," are the rank weeds of a free government and 
an unrestricted press. Perhaps no country has af- 
forded more fatal examples of such misrepresenta- 
tions, than our own. It is by the use of such means 
factious and designing men always rise to power. 
The instructive page of history is crowded with ex- 
amples. In some countries we have seen political 
partizans clandestinely supporting these vehicles of 
slander and calumny ; by their agency blackening 
the reputation of a meritorious and successful rival, 
for whom in the face of the world they professed the 
greatest personal consideration and respect. The ob- 
ject once gained, however, it has always been the 
practice of low ambition to disavow the means by 
which it mounted. In our country we congratulate 
Your Honour that every citizen has a temple of re- 
fuge in the laws. To these and an independent ju- 
ry he may safely flee for protection from the poison- 
ous breath of political slander and detraction. 

In the description which Your Honour has drawn 
of the situation of our country previous to the adop- 
tion of the federal constitution, we cannot but ob- 
serve the very strong resemblance which it bears to 
the picture of the present times. " Our government 
humbled and inefficient, our union, a thread, our 



38 ANSWER OP THE HOUSE. 

commerce unprotected, our revenue nothing, indivi* 
duals embarrassed, grievances complained of, our ru- 
lers censured, town and county resolutions publish- 
ed, combinations formed, non-compliance with the 
laws announced, property sold for one third its va- 
lue, the insolvent imprisoned, and the courts of jus- 
tice stopped ;" that this description applies to the 
present state of parts, if not the whole, of our coun- 
try, we believe will not be denied. Whence comes 
it, that from a state of the most flourishing prosperi- 
ty, a few months should have produced a change so 
truly astonishing ? It is not in the restless and un- 
steady habits of a people, till lately contented and 
happy, that we must look for the causes of these 
frightful calamities ; it is in the pernicious and dread- 
ful consequences of this shallow system of embargo 
and non-intercourse, that we shall find the fruitful 
source of our country^s ruin. 

We do most sincerely hope that neither Virginia 
nor any other state may ever succeed in " dictating 
measures to Congress, and by a convulsed state of 
things force their adoption.-" However such an 
usurpation might, from various causes, endure for a 
time, the returning good sense of the people would 
eventually restore the equilibrium, and effectually 
prevent those tempestuous scenes which Your Ho- 
nour has so eloquently described. "The importance 
and the interesting and perilous nature of the crisis," 
have excited the most alarming reflections in our 
minds : and we doubt not that every member of the 
legislature will devote himself to the arduous, yet 
necessary duty of "devising some reconciling expe- 
dient to quiet the agitated minds of our citizens," 
and relieve them from the weight of these unconsti- 
tutional restrictions. 

The House of Representatives derive peculiar sa- 
tisfaction from contemplating the patriotism, order 
and discipline of our militia, and look with confidence 
to this establishment for a sure defence of their 
country and its rights. Such a bulwark will always 



ANSWER OF THE HOUSE. 39 

sender "standing armies in time of peace" unnecessa- 
ry for protection ; and inadequate for usurpation or 
subjection at any time. So long as the militia sys- 
tem shall be deemed susceptible of improvement, so 
long will it be the favourite object of legislative aid, 
and shall meet the early and persevering attention 
of the House of Representatives. So far as it lies 
in our power we will take care that it shall be " ca- 
pable of moving and being moved without mortify- 
ing delays and dangerous collisions." Nothing will 
more subserve this desirable end than the preserva- 
tion of that discipline upon which depends the regu- 
larity and precision of all military movements. A 
vigilant regard also to those military judgments (upon 
which depend the pride and honour of a soldier) will 
tend greatly to inspire confidence in our officers, to 
procure obedience in their men, and restore to the 
system that harmony which constitutes its perfec- 
tion. 

The House of Representatives have remarked, 
with much anxiety, an evil of growing magnitude in 
the accumulation of depreciated and counterfeited 
bank bills ; the alarming height to which this evil 
has arisen, loudly calls for some remedy ; and al- 
though " the want of a foreign market for the pro- 
duce of our farms," and the total suspension of our 
commerce, afford fewer opportunities for witnessing 
impositions, yet no doubt the number of persons 
who resort to dishonest practices, with our paper 
currency, is much increased by the peculiar situation 
of the country. That ingenuity which is driven 
from the pursuits of honest industry and labour, fre- 
quently seeks a refuge from poverty in the paths of 
vice. 

It has always been the practice of the legislature 
of Massachusetts, to extend the fostering hand of 
encouragement to all manufactures undertaken with- 
in the commonwealth, with any prospect of success, 
or publick utility. The House of Representatives 
will' be happy upon every fair occasion, to continue 



40 ANSWER OF THE HOUSE* 

this laudable custom, and will seize the earliest mo- 
ment, which is free from other occupation, to deli- 
berate upon this important subject, and to devise 
such plans as will best promote the object in view. 

Good publick roads certainly afford very great fa- 
cilities to husbandry, commerce and manufactures ; 
and Massachusetts in this respect, is not behind 
any portion of the United States. It is matter of 
much satisfaction to the House of Representatives 
that these advantages have been obtained by the 
voluntary exertions and enterprise of our fellow cit- 
izens, without resorting to the general government 
for any aid from that superfluous wealth with which 
we are officially informed, the national treasury 
overflows. In a period of general prosperity, en- 
couragement to the ornamental planting of our pub- 
lick roads would certainly be entitled to some atten- 
tion from the Legislature, but at this awful crisis, 
when our very existence as a nation is almost in 
question, it is respectfully submitted to Your Hon- 
our, whether the occupation of much time on this 
subject might not be considered by our constituents 
as trifling with the publick expectations. 

To cherish the interests of literature, at all times, 
and under all circumstances, the House of Repre- 
sentatives will consider among the first and most 
pleasing of their duties. Upon this subject we shall 
always be ready most cheerfully to co-operate with 
Your Honour. 

The House of Representatives accept with grati- 
tude, and reciprocate with perfect sincerity, the wish 
which forms the conclusion of Your Honour's ad- 
dress, and prays Your Honour to be convinced that 
nothing, on their part, shall be wanting to bring the 
session to a termination consistent with the wish so 
devoutly expressed. 



41 



REPORT 

OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON PETITIONS. 



In Senate, Thursday^ Feb. 1. 

THE committee to whom were referred the peti- 
tions of sundry towns in this commonwealth on the 
subject of the embargo, and other subjects connect- 
ed therewith, have paid the earliest possible atten- 
tion to the very important and interesting subjects 
therein mentioned. These numerous representa- 
tions, made as if by one consent from different parts 
of the country, afford strong proof of the injustice 
and impolicy of the measures complained of, and 
exhibit a striking display of the disastrous conse- 
quences of those measures. The members of the 
legislature, having lately assembled from all quarters- 
of the state, cannot require any new evidence of the 
grievances which are universally oppressing their 
fellow citizens. The committee, therefore, instead 
of dwelling on the picture of private distresses, or 
enumerating the disgusting catalogue of publick 
wrongs, displayed in these petitions, have proceeded 
to analyze the whole, to select the leading subjects 
of complaint, and to consider whether there be any 
remedy within the power of this present legislature. 

The principal subjects of complaint in all these 
petitions may be comprised under these general heads. 

Firsts The impolitick, unnecessary and unconsti- 
tutional interdiction of commerce, by the several acts 
of the Congress of the United States, falsely called 
embargo laws. 



42 REPORT ON PETITIONS. 

Secondly, The apprehension that the nation is to. 
be speedily plunged into a war with Great Britain ; 
and consequently entangled in a fatal alliance with 
France. 

Thirdly, Some peculiarly oppressive and unjust 
provisions of the last embargo act, passed on the 
ninth day of January in the present year. 

The first of these subjects has been repeatedly un- 
der consideration before the legislature of this state. 
And here the committee cannot avoid observing that 
the misapprehension of our true interests and feel- 
ings by some of our representatives in Congress, 
must have contributed very much to the continu- 
ance of these embargo acts. The government of the 
United States would not probably investigate very 
critically those rights, which appeared to be aban- 
doned or disregarded by those who were peculiarly 
entrusted with their defence : and they must, from 
the same cause, have been led into the greatest mis- 
takes as to the feelings and dispositions of the peo- 
ple. Even if the constitutionality and justice of 
these measures had been less questionable, it is im- 
possible to believe that they would have been so 
long persevered in, if the government of the United 
States had been early and truly informed of their 
ruinous operation on the commercial states, and the 
universal disarlection they excited among the peo- 
ple. 

When this subject was first discussed in the le- 
gislature of this state, the opposers of the system 
could only reason from the general principles of our 
constitution, the necessities of commerce and the 
feelings of human nature. They depicted in strong 
colours the destructive tendency and consequence 
of this system. They have long since seen the ac- 
complishment of their predictions ; their most 
gloomy presages are verified by the event ; and the 
whole people now feel and acknowledge the force of 
those truths, which then employed the ablest of our 
statesmen to explain and demonstrate* 



REPORT ON PETITIONS. 43 

The people of New England do not need to enter 
into any refined reasoning or deep research on this 
subject. They recollect that the extension and pro- 
tection of commerce was one of their principal mo- 
tives to forming the present union. This was one of 
the three great objects enumerated in the former ar- 
ticles of confederation; and the want of a compe- 
tent power for this purpose in the antient govern- 
ment, was among the primary causes of our present 
constitution. 

They will always acknowledge with cheerfulness 
and gratitude, any efforts of their brethren of the 
south, against a common enemy : but most certainly 
expectations of this kind were not among their 
strongest inducements to desire a union of all the 
states. It had long been a prevailing opinion, con- 
firmed by the experience of the revolutionary war, 
that in times of great peril, the remote parts of our 
country would require aid from this quarter, instead 
of being able to afford any to it. We shall readily 
comply with the terms of this compact, and fulfil all 
the stipulations incumbent on us ; and we have a 
right to expect at the same time from the other mem- 
bers of the Union, a constant respect for those rights, 
which we never surrendered ; and attention to those 
interests, which the national government was insti- 
tuted to extend and preserve, not to destroy. 

The people of this state have been most severely 
disappointed in this expectation. The commerce of 
the country has furnished almost the whole revenue 
of the United States ; has given vigour and enersv to 
the government; has encouraged universal industry, 
and rewarded with plenty every description of peo- 
ple. While this commerce was thus productive to 
an unexampled extent, a portion of the general pro- 
fit should have been applied to preparations for its 
permanent protection : and when it was unjustly as- 
sailed, the whole power of the nation should have 
been exerted for its defence. The people recollect- 
ed the glorious example of a former administration in 



44 REPORT ON PETITIONS, 

179B, and they have seen the present administration 
reserving all their strength and all their energies to 
be employed in the annihilation of that commerce 
which they ought to protect. By a timid and un- 
warrantable compliance with the wishes of a foreign 
power, we are suddenly excluded from the ocean ; 
our trade is destroyed; our industry paralyzed ; and 
poverty and ruin are rapidly overspreading our land. 
Contemplating this state of things, and recollecting 
their views and objects at the time of adopting the 
constitution, the people do not require any further 
argument to convince them, that the primary objects 
of that compact are now neglected ; that their most 
important interests are wantonly sacrificed and their 
most essential rights flagrantly violated. 

But the committee forbear to pursue these reflec- 
tions. It is painful to dwell on tho?e evils and dis- 
tresses which it is out of our power to relieve. The 
committee are not at present prepared to recommend 
any adequate and satisfactory remedy, which could 
be applied by the two houses of the legislature alone. 
The most efficient, and perhaps the only certain reme- 
dy, rests with the people, who will soon have it in 
their power to unite the whole government of the 
state in one joint effort, with other states, whose in- 
terests and objects are similar to our own. for the 
support and vindication of their just rights by con- 
stitutional and peaceable means. 

The committee, however, being deeply impressed 
with the importance of this subject, and anxious, if 
possible, to afford some temporary alleviation to the 
publick distresses, ask leave to reserve this object of 
their commission for further consideration. 

As to the second subject of these petitions — the 
danger of an unnecessary and ruinous war with one 
nation, and a destructive alliance with another — the 
committee, with the most painful emotions, have 
perceived but too much ground for this apprehen- 
sion. The puerile suggestion of maintaining a war 
at the same time against the two great belligerent 



REPORT ON PETITIONS. 4£ 

nations, is too absurd to deserve attention. If then 
the United States are to select their enemy, and the 
choice is left to the present administration, the fears 
of these petitioners will eventually be realized. Even 
if this measure is not seriously intended by our 
government, yet the course of policy pursued by 
them, must, if persisted in, soon terminate in such a 
war. The committee here would observe, that an 
examination of the different measures of the two na- 
tions referred to, would leave them to elect the other 
alternative. These measures and acts are before the 
publick. Some of the most important of them have 
been so fully displayed, and thoroughly considered, 
in a late report to one of the houses of this legisla- 
ture, that it would be equally unnecessary and im- 
proper to exhibit them anew at this time. Whatev- 
er impressions may have been felt as to the conduct 
of Great Britain, every man will now perceive that 
the aggressions of France have been uniformly first 
in order of time, and most injurious in their nature. 
The gross injustice of her decree of November, 1806, 
was aggravated by the consideration, that we had at 
that time a commercial treaty with her ; while with 
Great Britain, in the following year, when her re- 
taliatory orders were passed, we not only had no 
treaty, but had just refused to ratify one made by 
our own ministers ; and therefore had no right to ex- 
pect from the latter any peculiar respect to neutral 
claims which we neglected to vindicate against the 
encroachments of her enemy. Every man, who va- 
lues the welfare of his country, and the honour of 
its government, must regret that the first outrage 
was not resisted in a manner becoming a great and 
powerful nation. Such a course would in any event 
have removed all occasion or pretence for retaliatory 
measures on the part of the other belligerent ; and 
would have prevented our being embroiled at the 
same time with the two most powerful nations of 
the world. It would also have produced another 
most salutary effect; it would have saved us from 



46 REPORT ON PETITIONS. 

the danger of an alliance with France, which experi- 
ence has shown is more to be deprecated than a war 
with any nation on the globe. 

The committee cannot dismiss this subject with- 
out observing, that from the known spirit and patno-. 
tismof the people of this state, they will undoubted- 
ly be always ready with their lives and fortunes to 
defend the country in any just and necessary war ; 
but they will require of iheir rulers to shew them 
that the war is just and necessary ; and from the par- 
tial disclosure made by the government, ol their ne- 
gotiations with these two nations, the publick, we 
apprehend, are by no means satisfied that a liberal 
and impartial policy, and a sincere disposition to con- 
ciliate, on our part, would not at once prevent the 
necessity of a war with Great Britain, and secure to 
us from that nation the entire respect that is due to 
all our just rights. 

As to the third subject mentioned in the petitions — 
the late act for enforcing the embargo — the commit- 
tee have examined it with great attention. The first 
remark it is calculated to excite is, that a system of 
policy which requires such violent, arbitrary and un- 
precedented measures to enforce its execution, must 
be in the highest degree repugnant to the feelings and 
habits of the people, if not hostile to their dearest in- 
terests. And even if this policy were admitted to be 
founded on the soundest reason, and the most cor- 
rect motives, yet no man could justify the numerous 
violations of natural and civil liberty, and of constitu- 
tional rights, which are authorized by this act. 

The people of this commonwealth, in establishing 
their constitution, have seen fit to declare and set 
forth certain natural rights of a free citizen, and cer- 
tain fundamental principles of a free government. It 
is painful to observe how many of these rights and 
principles are violated, or disregarded, by the act un- 
der consideration. 

It is declared in the tenth article of the declaration 
-of rights, that " Each individual of the society has a 



REPORT ON PETITIONS. 47 

fight to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his 
lite, liberty, and property, according to standing 
laws." By the second section of this act of Con- 
gress, no vessel can be laden without the special per* 
mission of the collector, which that collector is au- 
thorised to grant, or refuse, at his discretion. And 
even when from his knowledge of character and cir- 
cumstances he may think it safe and proper to grant 
such permission, he is prohibited from doing so, if 
the president of the United States shall have given 
instructions to the contrary. By the third section 
of the same act, owners of vessels already laden are 
required to give bonds in six times the value of the 
vessel and cargo, or to unlade the vessels ; and even 
when the owner, in compliance with this unjust re- 
gulation, has procured and offered the bond required, 
the collector may refuse to receive it, and by his own 
arbitrary mandate, compel the unlading of the cargo. 
Thus the laws, which regulate the use and enjoy- 
ment of our property, instead of being standing and 
permanent, may be as mutable and uncertain as the 
whim and feelings of an executive officer can render 
them. What is allowable on one day may be un- 
lawful on the next, and what is permitted to one ci- 
tizen may, under circumstances precisely similar, be 
refused to another. Means and temptations will be 
presented to the officers of government for indulging 
the asperity of political hatred, and the rancour of 
personal resentments ; and a petty tyrant may be 
raised in almost every town, to whose caprice or ma- 
levolence our most important rights may be subject- 
ed. 

By the eleventh article of our declaration of rights 
it is declared " that every subject of the common- 
wealth oudit to find a certain remedy, by having re- 
course to the laws, for all injuries or wrongs which 
be m iv receive in his person, property, or character." 
But bv the tenth section of this late act, when any 
officer is sued on account of his proceedings under 
it, instead of relying on the laws, he may produce 



48 REPORT ON PETITIONS. 

the instructions and regulations of the president, for 
his justification and defence. Thus the remedy of 
the injured citizen may depend, not on publick laws, 
but on secret executive instructions ; which may ne- 
ver have been known to the party aggrieved, till the 
moment when they are thus produced to defeat his 
constitutional remedy. 

The constitution of the United States, as well as 
that of this state, expressly prohibits unreasonable 
searches and seizures of the persons, houses and ef- 
fects of the citizen. Yet by the ninth section of this 
act, every collector is authorized in the broadest 
terms to seize any property, not only when in carts 
or other carriages, but when in any manner apparent- 
ly on its way towards the territories of a foreign na- 
tion, or the vicinity thereof; and he may detain it 
until bond is given, the amount of which is not limit- 
ed by the act, and of course he is left to the arbitra- 
ry discretion of the officer. It is obvious that the 
terms of this section do not confine the collector to 
a seizure in cases only when the goods are in actual 
motion towards the suspected place. Of course 
there is no limitation to this tremendous power ; and 
he may seize effects in any dwelling house in which 
they may have been deposited, if he chooses to sus- 
pect any ulterior destination, and so to conclude 
that they are in that manner apparently on their way 
towards a foreign country. This provision in both 
the constitutions referred to, evidently contemplates 
the necessity of a warrant to authorize these searches 
and seizures ; which is to be issued by a civil magis- 
trate upon probable cause, supported by oath. But 
under this section, the collector is made the only 
judge ; no oath, no civil process, no formalities, are 
required. His only warrant is his own despotick 
will ; and this may be executed, not by a peace offi- 
cer of the government, but by a file of soldiers from 
the standing army. 

Both these constitutions reprobate the exacting of 
excessive bail or sureties, and the imposing of exces- 



REPORT ON PETITIONS. 49 

sive fines. If the genesal objects of these acts were 
in a high degree salutary, and generally approved* 
yet most men, it is believed, would agree that the 
fines they impose are in many instances excessive. 
But the amount, for which the citizen is required to 
give bonds with sureties, by many different sections 
of this act, is most manifestly a violation of the spi- 
rit and principles of these constitutional provisions. 
The smallest sum mentioned is six times the value of 
the goods, and in a case before alluded to, there is no 
limitation whatever; and a collector may demand 
sureties to any amount which his arbitrary will deems 
fit. It should be observed too, that in these cases 
the party is not charged with a previous offence, or 
even with intention to commit any ; but all this secu- 
rity is deemed a necessary precaution against future 
possible offences by the most peaceable and orderly 
of our citizens. 

Both these constitutions expressly sanction that 
principle of natural justice, that no man ought to 
suffer for actions which were lawful at the time of 
committing them. But by the third section of this 
act, many citizens are exposed to heavy pecuniary 
losses, are required to furnish excessive sureties, or 
finally to suffer a forfeiture of their property : and ail 
this in consequence of proceedings, which were not 
only allowable, but expressly sanctioned by the laws 
of the United States, and specially permitted by 
their officers. 

By the seventh sectiou of this act, the owner of a 
vessel is made responsible for the inevitable acci- 
dents of navigation, and even for depredations of 
a foreign power on the ocean. The only mode of 
defence allowed, will be found in most cases phy- 
sically impossible. The party must produce the 
whole surviving crew on the trial, who must ail be 
sworn as competent witnesses. If any one of them 
should accidentally be absent; if he should die in a 
remote part of the world, and his death not be clear- 
ly proved; if he should have any interest in the 

G 



50 



KEPORT OX PETITIONS, 



event of the trial, which would prevent his being a 
competent witness ; if he should by the visitation of 
Providence have become insane, and incapable of 
testifying; if he should have become convicted of 
any crime which would authorize the rejection of 
his testimony ; or finally, if he should be suborned, 
concealed, or spirited away, by any corrupt officer 
of the customs ; in each of these cases, the innocent 
owner, in addition to the loss of his vessel and car- 
go, will be sentenced to pay the whole penalty of 
his bond, amounting to six times the value of the 
property he has lost. 

Jn the tenth section of this act it is pretended to 
furnish a remedy for any unjust proceedings of the 
collectors. The party aggrieved is not indulged with 
a trial by jury, but must apply to a single judge of 
the United States Courts. If the judge should con- 
sider a seizure as altogether unnecessary and unjust, 
he cannot restore the property without receiving 
such bond as the act prescribes to be taken by the 
collector in the same case ; in which event the ag- 
grieved party will have obtained no redress whatev- 
er ; and if the judge should otherwise determine, the 
complainant is liable to treble cost. 

The committee will notice only one other part of 
this act which appears to be as dangerous to the 
publick peace as it is injurious to publick liberty. 
By the eleventh section, the president, or any per- 
son empowered by him, may employ any part of the 
land or naval forces, or militia to enforce the execu- 
tion of the embargo laws, and to prevent and sup- 
press all opposition to them, Without commenting 
on the loose and indefinite description of the objects 
to which this military force is to be applied ; the 
committee would remark, that almost every power 
given to the collectors may be enforced at the point 
of the bayonet ; excluding the aid and the interfer- 
ence of the laws and magistrates of the country. The 
military power will no longer, in the language of our 
constitution, " be in subordination to the civil au- 



REPORT ON PETITIONS. 5\ 

thoriiy." And we are liable, at any moment, by the 
indiscretion of a petty executive officer, to be sub- 
jected to military despotism, or to be involved in all 
the horrours of civil warfare. 

On viewing these provisions of the act under con- 
sideration, the committee do unequivocally declare 
their solemn conviction, that it is in many particu- 
lars, unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional. They 
would by no means contend that this opinion, if 
confirmed and adopted by the legislature, would be 
decisive x>f the question. While the laws continue 
to have their free course, the judicial courts are com- 
petent to decide this question, and to them every ci- 
tizen, when aggrieved, ought to apply for redress. It 
would be derogatory to the honour of the common- 
wealth to presume that it is unable to protect its sub- 
jects against aii violations of their rights, by peacea- 
ble and legal remedies. While this state maintains 
its sovereignty and independence, all the citizens can 
find protection against outrage and injustice in the 
strong arm or the state government. 

An}' forcible resistance, therefore, by individuals, 
to the execution of this act of Congress, is not only 
unnecessary, but would be highly inexpedient and 
improper ; it would endanger the publick peace and 
tranquillity, and tend essentially to injure and put at 
hazard that cause, on which nearly the whole people 
are now so zealously united. The committee are 
deeply sensible of that accumulated distress which 
has so long oppressed the whole community, and 
borne with peculiar aggravation on some particular 
parts of it. They cannot too highly applaud the un- 
exampled patience and forbearance which has been 
already exhibited under this pressure of undeserved 
calamities. And they would earnestly recommend 
the exercise of the same forbearance^ until all those 
peaceable and orderly means which the constitution 
and laws of our country will permit, and all those 
political expedients, which our habits and usages 
can suggest, shall have been exhausted in vain. 



O c 2 REPORT ON PETITIONS. 

It is to be regretted that no immediate and effica- 
cious remedy can now be proposed for these nume- 
rous and aggravated evils. The committee, howev- 
er, consider it their duty to recommend, without loss 
of time, all such measures as have appeared to them 
to be now practicable, and calculated to remove or 
alleviate the publick distress; they . therefore ask 
leave to 

Report in part,, A bill to secure the people of this 
commonwealth against unreasonable, arbitrary and 
unconstitutional searches in their dwelling houses — 
and also the following 

RESOSUTIONS : 

Resolved, That the act of the Congress of the Uni- 
ted States passed on the ninth day of January in the 
present year, for enforcing the act laying an embar- 
go, and the several acts supplementary thereto, is, in 
the opinion of the legislature, in many respects, un- 
just, oppressive and unconstitutional, and not legal- 
ly binding on the citizens of this state. But not- 
withstanding this opinion, in order finally to secure a 
certain and permanent relief, it is earnestiy recom- 
mended to all parties aggrieved by the operation of 
this act, to abstain from forcible resistance, and to 
apply for their remedy in a peaceable manner to the 
jaws of the commonwealth. 

Resolved, That a suitable remonstrance be prepar- 
ed, and immediately forwarded to the Congress of 
the United States, from this legislature, expressing 
their opinions and feelings on the several subjects of 
complaint contained in the said petitions, and parti- 
cularly urging the repeal of the said act of Congress, 
passed on the ninth of January last. 

Resolved, That the legislature of this common- 
wealth will zealously co-operate with any of the other 
states, in all legal and constitutional measures, for 
procuring such amendments to the constitution of 
the United States, as shall be judged necessary to ob- 






REPORT ON 55 

tain protection and defence for commerce, and to 
give to the commercial states their fair and just con- 
sideration in the government of the Union ; and for 
affording permanent security, as well as present re- 
lief, from the oppressive measures under which they 
now surfer. 

Resolved, That the honourable the president of the 
senate, and the honourable the speaker of the house 
of representatives, be requested to transmit a copy 
of this report, and the resolutions thereon, to the le- 
gislatures of such of our sister states, as manifest a 
disposition to concur with us in measures to rescue 
our common country from impending ruin, and to 
preserve inviolate the union of the states. 



MR. CROWNINSHIELD'S RESOLUTIONS. 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. — In the House of Representatives, Nov. 16, 1808. 

RESOLVED, as the seuse of this house, that the British Orders in Coun- 
cil, of November, 1807, interdicting all neutral trade with France, and the 
nations under her controul, except the neutral shall first enter her ports, and 
there receive her licence to proceed, and pay such duties as they shall and 
have imposed j and the Decrees of France, interdicting all trade with the 
English nation and her dependencies, and subjecting to capture and condem- 
nation, all neutral vessels, and their cargoes, for the absurd cause of being 
spoken with, or visited, by force, by her enemies, are violations of the neutral 
rights of the United States, and their independence and sovereignty, and if 
they cannot be removed by fair negotiation, ought to be resisted by all the 
means in their power. 

RESOLVED, That in case it shall appear to Congress that all fair at- 
tempts to remove said Orders and Decrees by negotiation, shall have been 
exhausted, and they shall find it necessary to assume any other attitude of 
resistance, it will be the duty of the whole people of the commonwealth of 
Massachusetts, to rally round the standard of their own nation, and its gov- 
ernment, and to afford them their utmost support by all constitutional means 
in their power. 

REPORT. 

The committee, to whom was referred the two resolutions that accompany this report, 
and which were proposed for the consideration of this house, have duly attended to 
their commission, and ask leave to report, that, in their opinion, it is inexpedient to 
pass the same, for the following reasons. 

BY the constitution of the United States, the fo- 
reign relations thereof are exclusively vested in the 



54 CROWNINSHIELD S RESOLUTIONS. 

national government — with that government rests 
the obligation to consider of, and act upon, the do- 
ings of other nations — with it rests also a knowledge 
of the conduct of other nations — -their motives and 
pretensions, and how far the same may have been 
sanctioned or encouraged by the government of the 
United States. 

The communications which have passed between 
the United States and the nations referred to in ihe 
proposed resolutions, are in a great degree unknown 
to the legislature of Massachusetts; any opinion, 
therefore, of the House of Representative on this sub- 
ject, would be founded on an imperfect knowledge of 
what relates thereto, and might, from the same cause, 
be erroneous. 

The house could not rely on the partial informa- 
tion which is allowed to escape from the executive 
cabinet, much less on that diminished portion with 
which the citizens or legislature of Massachusetts are 
deemed worthy to be entrusted, from the secret ses- 
sions of Congress, for the correctness of any opinion 
they might form on so important a matter. Influenc- 
ed by the limited information with which the govern- 
ment of the Union has seen fit to indulge the pub- 
lick, some persons might be induced to adopt the 
sense of the first resolution, and conclude, that both 
nations therein mentioned, had, at the same time, 
with equal wantonness, and like disregard of our 
rights and their duties, enacted the offensive decrees 
and orders — that the same measure of opposition, to 
both nations, was alike required by the dignity and 
interests of the United States, and would be attended 
with similar effect — whereas a complete understand- 
ing of the conduct of our government towards these 
nations, and of our relations to each of them, with 
the grounds or pretence for passing their several de- 
crees and orders, might lead to a different result, in 
the minds of men who endeavoured only to arrive at 
a correct and impartial judgment. 

While the committee entertain no doubt of the 



REPORT ON 55 

soundness of the above reasons for the opinion they 
have offered on the inexpediency of adopting the pro- 
posed resolutions, yet, as from the language of the 
same, it would appear to be the sense of the mover, 
that the same motives aud causes produced, from 
both foreign nations, the decrees and orders com- 
plained of, it may be advisable to state such informa- 
tion, both as to the dates of the several decrees and 
orders, as well as to the alledged grounds of passing 
the same, as have come to the knowledge of your 
committee. It is also important that the House 
should be possessed of whatever information can be 
procured on a business so interesting to them, and 
which is made a pretence for the deep and universal 
calamities, which the government of the United 
States has seen fit to inflict on the citizens — calami- 
ties, which press with peculiar and aggravated distress 
on the good people of Massachusetts. 

It will readily be conceived that the decrees and 
orders, intended by these resolutions, are that of 
France, promulgated at Berlin the 21st of November, 
1806 ; and the orders of Great Britain, passed at Lon- 
don on the llth of November, 1807. 

The French decree declares, that the British islands, 
their colonies and dependencies should be considered 
as in a state of blockade — that all trade in British 
goods, should be prohibited, and that all vessels, 
with their cargoes, sailing to or from Great Britain, 
or having on board cargoes of British origin, should 
be subject to seizure and confiscation. On the -Sl'st 
December, 1806, certain commissioners of the Bri- 
tish government, having then just concluded a trea- 
ty with a minister of the United States, which trea- 
ty was never submitted to the senate for their ad- 
visement, by direction of their government, present- 
ed a memorial to the American minister, in which it 
was distinctly declared, that if the enemy (referring 
to the emprour of France and the decree of Novem- 
ber, 1806) " should carry his threats into execution, 
and if neutral nations should, contrary to all expects- 



56 crowninshield's resolutions. 

tion, acquiesce in such , usurpations, his majesty 
might probably be compelled, however reluctantly, 
to retaliate in his own just defence, and to issue or- 
ders to his cruisers, to adopt, towards the neutrals, 
any hostile system to which those neutrals should 
have submitted from his enemies:" On the tenth of 
January, 1807, his Britannic Majesty issued an or- 
der for preventing all commerce from port to port of 
his enemies, comprehending in said order, not only 
the ports of France, but those of other nations, as, 
either in alliance with France, or subject to her do- 
minion, have, by measures of active offence, or by 
the exclusion of British ships, taken a part in the 
present war. In the letter which accompanied the 
communication of,this order to the secretary of state 
of the United States, this order is stated, by the Bri- 
tish minister, to be authorized by the acknowledged 
principles of the law of nations, and to have been in- 
duced by a knowledge, on the part of the British go- 
vernment, that the measures announced, by the de- 
cree of the French government of the 21st November 
1806, had already, in some instances, been carried in- 
to execution, by the privateers of his enemy. 

The American minister at Paris, in the month of 
December l806, requested of the French minister of 
Marine, an explanation of the decree of the 21st of 
November, preceding, and was answered that " an 
American vessel could not be taken, at sea, for the 
mere reason that she was going to or coming from a 
port of England." The French minister of marine, 
however, advised the American minister, that it was 
proper that he should " communicate with the minis- 
ter of exterior relations, as to what concerned the 
correspondence of the citizens of the United States 
of America with England." Another article, declar- 
ing all merchandize belonging to England, or com- 
ing from its manufactories, or colonies, though be- 
longing to neutrals, liable to seizure, was to be car- 
ried into execution. This it seems was to be acquies- 
ced in by the American government* if to operate 



crowninshield's resolutions. &7 

only in the ports of France, as conformable to publick 
law, although in direct contravention to the stipula- 
tions of an existing treaty between the United States 
and the emperor of France.* 

Notwithstanding the hopes that were indulged by 
the American government, in consequence of the re- 
ply of the French minister, it appears, from a letter 
of Mr. Madison to Gen. Armstrong, that, as early as 
May, 1807, it was known in the United States, that 
the French privateers in the West Indies had, in vir- 
tue of the edict of November, 1806, committed de- 
predations on the American commerce — and in Oc- 
tober, 1807, an American ship called the Horizon^ 
bound from Great Britain to Lima, having been 
wrecked within the territorial jurisdiction of France, 
was finally condemned under the French decree of 
November, 1806. 

If any doubt ever existed, as to the intention of 
France, to execute this decree against the United 
States, it must have been removed, after the conduct 
of her cruisers in the spring of 1807 — her condemna- 
tion of the Horizon, in the following October, left 
not the smallest pretence for questioning, that her 
violence and injustice would be limited only by her 
power. 

The pretensions of the emperour of France, that his 
decrees were a retaliation on Great Britain, for simi- 
lar violations of the laws of nations, previously com- 
mitted by her, through the commerce of neutral na- 
tions, could never be admitted as true in fact, or if 
true, as just in principle, in regard to the United 
States. 

The principle said to have been assumed by Great 
Britain in 1736, which has been pressed into the ser- 
vice of those who are desirous to find an apology, if 
not a justification, of every outrage committed by 
France, although adopted in the early part of the last 
war, was so modified as to afford no cause of com- 

* See page 15 of Madison's? letter to Armstrong. 
H 



5$ 



REPORT ON 



plaint to the United States during the latter years of 
that contest, and it is believed, that a similar temper 
of accommodation has been manifested by the same 
power to the United States, in the present war. 

While it has been said "that Great Britain is the 
only nation that has acted upon or otherwise given a 
sanction to it," the edicts of France from 1704 to the 
present day, with but small intervals of deviation, ei- 
ther in principle or practice, declare the reverse. 

The Decrees of France in 1704 and 1744 declare 
all goods, of the growth or fabrick of an enemy's 
country, liable to confiscation, unless bound from an 
enemy's port direct to the port of the neutral owner. 
An ordonnance by the court of France, delivered to 
the States General of the United Provinces, and pub- 
lished by authority in the Utrecht Gazette, July, 
1756, declares, if any Dutch ships carry any goods 
or merchandize of the growth or manufacture of the 
enemies of France, they shall be esteemed good prize, 
but the ships shall be discharged. On the 9th of 
May, A D. 1793, France authorized the capture of 
neutral vessels, laden with provisions belonging to 
neutrals, but bound to enemies' ports. This decree 
was prior, by one month, to the order of Great Bri- 
tain, of similar import. On the 23d of the same 
month, she declared it should not extend to Ameri- 
can vessels, which latter decree she repealed on the 
28th of the same month of May, and the first remain- 
ed in force. On the 1st July she again decreed as 
on the 23d May. Twenty-seven days afterwards, 
this decree was repealed, and that of the 9th May re- 
mained in force until 4th of January, 179-5- On the 
27th of November, 1796, the French commissioners 
at Cape Francois authorized the capture of all Ame- 
rican vessels bound to or from English ports. Febru- 
ary 1st, 1797, commissioners at Cape Francois or- 
dered the capture of all vessels bound to any port in 
the West Indies, delivered up to the English, and all 
vessels, cleared out generally for the West Indies. 

In January, 1798, France declared that the condi- 



CROWNINSHIELD^S RESOLUTIONS. 39 

tion of ships in every thing, which concerns their 
character as neutrals or enemies, shall be determin- 
ed by their cargoes, and every vessel found at sea, la- 
den in whole or in part with merchandize, coming out 
of England, or its possessions, shall be declared good 
prize, whoever may be the proprietors of such com- 
modities or merchandize, and this decree is founded 
expressly on the ordonnance of 1704. 

It is therefore an incontrovertible truth, that 
France, from the earliest time, and certainly prior to 
the year 17^6, has adopted, in principle and practice, 
broader rules for limiting the commerce of neutrals, 
and condemning their property, and with fewer and 
shorter intervals of regard to their rights, than has 
been assumed by her enemy, and of course could 
on no ground be justified by the pretence, that the 
decree of November, 1806, and the subsequent one 
of Milan, condemning the property of neutrals, be- 
cause the vessels had been spoken with by British 
cruisers, were a retaliation for similar violations of 
publick law by her foe. 

The second resolve proposed assumes as a fact, 
that the measures adopted by the Congress of the 
United States in the last year, which were the acts 
imposing an embargo on the trade of her citizens 5 
were measures of resistance against France and 
Great Britain. An assumption, which would be 
scarcely decent for this legislature to adopt, when the 
president has pledged his word, which ought to be 
sacred, to both these nations, that they were not 
measures of hostility, as appears by the letter of the 
secretary of state to the minister of the United States 
at the court of France, under date of February 8, 
1808, and by a similar letter to our minister at the 
court of London, under date of December 23, 1807. 

And surely the legislature of Massachusetts would 
be altogether unmindful of its duties, should they at- 
tempt to pledge the people of this commonwealth to 
sanction any measures the Congress might see fit to 
adopt, after the fatal experience of their measures for 



60 REPORT ON 

the last year — measures which, however intended, 
have produced only distress and wretchedness at home, 
disgrace and degradation of our national character 
abroad. 

A short review of the circumstances and condition 
of the United States, from the adoption of the pre- 
sent constitution, and the conduct of the different 
administrations under them, may serve to shew what 
the interests and honour of the nation did, and do 
require to be done, on the part of our government. 

It is well known, that, when Congress first assem- 
bled under the existing constitution, the administra- 
tion was encompassed with the most serious embar- 
rassments at home and abroad — embarrassments aris- 
ing out of the waste of capital, the detect of credit, 
and the want of revenue, at the conclusion of the 
war — embarrassments, proceeding from the recipro- 
cal claims of the United States and Great Britain, re- 
lative to the execution of the treaty of peace — em- 
barrassments concerning the navigation of Hie Missi- 
sippi ; and embarrassments, aggravating all such as 
before existed, which arose out of the French revolu- 
tion, and that were followed by extensive depreda- 
tions, committed on our commerce by England, by 
France and by Spain. 

With these obstacles to contend with, the peace and 
neutrality of the nation were impartialiy asserted, and 
maintained — with England, our antient controver- 
sies were satisfactorily adjusted- — the posts on our 
frontiers were given up — Indian wars extinguish- 
ed — adequate compensations, for depredations com- 
mitted upon our trade, obtained, and the national 
faith redeemed, by provisions for the final settlement 
of British debts. By Spain, our right to the naviga- 
tion of the Missisippi was recognized, and indemnity 
secured for the illegal capture of our vessels. 

With France a new treaty was concluded, annul- 
ling her unjust decrees, granting us security, as far as 
the faith of nations can be so considered, against 
their future re-establishment, and containing: her 



CROWNINSHIELD^S resolutions. 6} 

submission to the act of Congress, which declared 
the old treaties void, by reason of their violations on 
her part. 

Thus with foreign nations our antient controver- 
sies were adjusted, and those of a recent date, and 
which had grown out of a fierce and unexampled war, 
were composed. 

At home, agriculture, manufactures, the fisheries, 
navigation and commerce, were encouraged and ex- 
tended — the credit of the nation was revived, its ca- 
pital enlarged, its revenue established — the publick 
arsenals were replenished, a naval force created, and 
the American name upheld and revered throughout 
the world. 

In this condition of unexampled prosperity at home, 
and of peace and consideration abroad, our present 
rulers were called to the administration of the publick 
affairs — and what has been the fruit of their labours ? 
Let the following facts answer : 
Our agriculture is discouraged, 
The fisheries abandoned, and 
Navigation forbidden — 

Our commerce at home restrained, if not annihi- 
lated ; 

Our commerce abroad cut off, and 
Our navy sold, dismantled, or degraded to the ser- 
vice of cutters and gun boats ; 
The revenue extinguished, 
The course of justice interrupted, 
The military power exalted above the civil, and by 
setting up a standard of political faith, unknown to 
the constitution, the nation weakened, by internal 
animosities and division, at the moment when it is 
unnecessarily andimprovidently exposed to war with 
Great Britain, France and Spain. 

So great a change, accomplished in so short a time, 
js unexampled even in the history of weak and un- 
faithful administrations, and can have proceeded on- 
ly from the want of that capacity, impartiality and 
prudence, without which no government can long 



62 REPORT ON 

preserve the prosperity, or the confidence of the 
country. 

The dawn of the present administration promised 
an impartial and patriotick course, and the citizens 
anticipated a continuance of the publick and private 
enjoyments which distinguished our land ; but these 
expectations were soon disappointed, by the avowal 
of a system of political persecution and proscription 
which has interrupted the harmony of good neigh- 
bourhood, and gone far to destroy the happiness 
of social intercourse. 

The conclusion of the late war in Europe afforded 
a favourable opportunity to enter into negotiations, 
for the purpose of establishing such maritime provi- 
sions as, in the event of future war, would secure the 
navigation and trade of the United States against a 
repetition of the injuries they had so lately suffered. 
This opportunity was wholly neglected, and the com- 
mercial and maritime treaty with Great Britain, the 
first naval power in the world, was suffered to expire 
without a single attempt, that we have ever heard of, 
to obtain its renewal. 

The war in Europe recommenced in 1803, and 
thereby our commerce was again exposed to inter- 
ruptions upon the ocean. These served as matter of 
ineffectual remonstrance until 1806, when France 
passed the decree of Berlin, thereby violating the pro- 
visions of her treaty with the United States, infring- 1 



ing the law of nations, and prostrating the commer- § 
cial rights of all neutral states. 

This decree is substantially and almost literally the 
same as that passed by the French Directory in 1798, 
and which president Adams in his speech to Con- 
gress in December following, pronounced to be "an 
unequivocal act of war, which interest, as well as 
honour, called on the nation firmly to resist." 

Congress accordingly proposed to pass laws, an- 
nulling the treaty with France, prohibiting all com- 
mercial intercourse with the French dominions, and 
providing the equipment of a naval force, for the de- 
fence of our just rights. 



crowninshield's resolutions. 65 

The country cannot have forgotten the protection affor- 
ded to trade by these measures, so honourable to the 
nation — measures by which our flag was respected in 
every sea, and the skill and courage of our officers 
and seamen displayed in battle with the ships of 
France. 

It was in consequence of these decisive acts, that 
an early communication was made to our govern- 
ment, of the desire of France to return to the rela- 
tions of peace and to the authority of publick law, 
and the convention, which was soon after concluded 
by our government, with the person who now sways 
the sceptre of France, accomplished those important 
objects. 

Had our rulers, after the promulgation of the de- 
cree of Berlin, followed the example of their prede- 
cessors, the English orders would not have been is- 
sued, nor should we now have to deplore the distress 
that afflicts the country. 

If, then, these evils might have been avoided, by 
imitating the example of 1798, may they not yet be 
removed, by retracingthe erroneous steps which have 
been taken, and by adopting now those measures 
which then proved efficacious ? 

To this end, let Congress repeal the embargo, an- 
nul the convention with France, forbid all commer- 
cial intercourse with the French dominions, arm our 
publick and private ships, and unfurl the republican 
banner against the imperial standard. 

This done, the English orders would cease to ope- 
rate, we should hear no more of the unparalleled fol- 
ly of contending, at the same time, with all the great 
powers of Europe — our trade to every region of the 
globe, except France and her dependencies, would 
a^ain recover and flourish — our agriculture would 
feel the influence of the emancipation of trade, and 
hand in hand with general prosperity, the revenue 
of the nation would once more exceed its efpendU 
ture. 



64 REPORT ON 

Therefore Resolved, That it is inexpedient for this 
house to adopt and pass the resolutions proposed. 
By order of the committee, 

C. GORE, 



REPORT 

Of a Committee of ike House of Representatives, 

RESPECTING CERTAIN MILITARY ORDERS ISSUED BY HIS HO- 
NOUR LEVI LINCOLN, LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOUR AND COM- 
MANDER IN CHIEF OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSA- 
CHUSETTS, 



THE committee appointed " to inquire what mi- 
litary orders have been issued by His Honour the 
lieutenant governour of this commonwealth, or by 
the adjutant general, for the purpose of calling on 
the militia of this commonwealth to enforce the em- 
bargo laws, and the manner in which such orders 
have been issued and executed," with orders " to 
proceed on said business, and report on the subject 
at large t « this house as soon as possible," have at- 
tended to that service, and ask leave to report — 

That on the first day of February instant, military 
orders were issued though the adjutant general's of- 
fice, by His Honour Levi Lincoln, lieutenant gover- 
nour and commander in chief of this commonwealth ; 
a copy of which orders accompanies this report. 

They find by the statement of the adjutant general, 
that these orders were directed and sent to the fol- 
lowing officers severally, viz. Thomas Badger, lieu- 
tenant colonel commandant; Charles Turner, lieu- 



MILITARY ORDERS. 65 

tenant colonel ; Ebenezer Lothrop, brigadier gene- 
ral ; David Nye, lieutenant colonel ; Baker Loring, 
Ebenezer Bowditch and Thomas Williams, captains ; 
James Brickett, major general ; Charles Bean, Simon 
Nowell and Moses Bradbury, captains ; James Mer- 
rill and Charles Thomas, lieutenant colonels ; Josh- 
ua Danforth, captain; Samuel Reed, lieutenant colo- 
nel ; and John Cooper, brigadier general : with the 
exception that the following words were not inserted 
in the order sent to Colonel Badger; which the ad- 
jutant general states to have been omitted by mis- 
take, viz. " Recollecting that in the happy govern- 
ment established by the American people, the cha- 
racter of the citizen is not lost in that of the soldier, 
and that coolness, firmness, prompt obedience, and a 
sacred regard to the rights of society and individuals 
are essential to both ; you will duly appreciate this 
opportunity of serving your country, and or even in- 
creasing,the confidence she has placed in you." 

Your committee find that the officers above nam- 
ed were designated and appointed as " the militia of- 
ficers" near several ports of entry within this com- 
monwealth, " to whom the collector of the district is 
to apply, i*f it shall be necessary, to accomplish " the 
" purposes of the national government," as " specifi- 
ed" in the orders. They are required to "be pre- 
pared and hold themselves in readiness with those 
under their command, armed and equipped, at the 
call of the collector, and subject to his discretion, to 
aid him with their whole force, or such part thereof 
as may be sufficient to enable him within his district 
to discharge his duties, prevent disorders and opposi- 
tion to the authority of government, and carry the 
aforesaid laws into execution ;" and to "make cor- 
rect muster and pay rolls of such militia as shall be 
employed in actual service, and transmit the same to 
the war department of the United States." 

The places of abode of the officers, and the ports 
of entry comprised within their several commands, 



66 REPORT ON 

are stated in a schedule from the adjutant general's 
office, accompanying this report. 

Your committee find, according to the statement 
of the adjutant general, that an officer has not been 
appointed " in or near to each port of entry within 
this state." No officer has been appointed, according 
to his statement, whose command appears to extend 
to either of the ports of Castine, Frenchman's Bay, 
Nantucket, Dighton or Gloucester ; unless the name 
of Gloucester ought to be added in the schedule to 
the names of Newburyporl and Ipswich, opposite the 
name of General James Brickett, of Haverhill ; 
which the adjutant general "believes" ought to be 
the case, and which he says was accidentally omitted. 

It will be seen by the said schedule, that Machias, 
Passamaquoddy, and Moose Island, were all placed 
opposite the name of brigadier general John Cooper, 
of Machias. By the same document it appears that 
the number of infantry, rank and file, of the entire 
command of the general and field officers afore nam- 
ed, amounts to fifteen thousand two hundred and six- 
ty nine. The adjutant general does not state whe- 
ther there are troops of any other description under 
their command. Your committee could not ascer- 
tain the number of men under the command of the 
seven captains, thus appointed, because the returns 
of companies never appear in the adjutant general's 
office. 

Contrary to military custom and the uniform usage 
in this commonwealth, the orders to the brigadier 
generals, lieutenant colonels and captains were sent 
directly to them respectively, without passing 
through the hands of their superiour officers, and 
without consulting them, or giving them any notice 
of the same. 

The adjutant general informed your committee, that 
he had seen a letter from the secretary at war to His 
Honour the lieutenant governour, upon the subject 
of these appointments, but that he had no copy of 
the same ; and that he believed it had always been 



MILITARY ORDERS. 6? 

the practice with other governours of this common- 
wealth, to retain any communications to them from 
the secretary at war of the United States. 

Your committee did not think it expedient to ap- 
ply to His Honour for any communications which he 
might have received from the president or the secre- 
tary at war. 

Your committee, under the injunction to report as 
soon as possible, have confined their inquiries respect- 
ing the manner in which the orders of His Honour 
have been executed, to the district of Boston and 
Charlestown. They find that Colonel Badger receiv- 
ed the orders of the commander in chief on the se- 
cond or third of February instant ; that by an order 
dated the seventh instant, he directed the commis- 
sioned officers under his command, to meet on the 
following evening on military business ; that the of- 
ficers having accordingly convened, the orders of 
the commander in chief were read to them, and they 
were required to hold themselves in readiness to 
march at a moment's warning with the men under 
their respective commands, for the purpose of en- 
forcing the embargo laws, agreeable to the said or- 
ders. 

Your committee find some of the officers so con- 
vened, belonged to a detachment consisting of five 
companies, with a suitable proportion of officers, 
which ha 1 lately been detached from said Colonel 
Badger's command, and put under the command of 
Colonel Barnes, of Roxbury; and that they form a 
part of the one hundred thousand men lately draft- 
ed for the seivice of the United States. Application 
was made to Colonel Badger, by some of his officers, 
at the time of said meeting, and afterwards, for a 
copy of said orders, but they could not obtain them. 
Application was also made to the adjutant general 
for a copy of the orders, but without success. It was 
stated to your committee, both by the adjutant gene- 
ral and Colonel Badger, that doubts have been en- 
tertained respecting the authority of the naval offw 



68 REPORT ON 

cer of the district of Boston and Charlestown ; he 
had not been informed of these orders, and it was in- 
timated that these circumstances had prevented the 
circulation of the orders in the usual mode. 

Your committee find that by the constitution of 
the United States, Congress is authorized " to pro- 
vide for the calling forth the militia to execute the 
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel 
invasions ;" and that the president is the " comman- 
der in chief of the army and navy of the United 
States, and of the militia of the several states^ when 
called into actual service of the United States" 

Your committee also find that by a law of the 
United States, passed Feb. 28, 179*5, entitled " An act 
to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the 
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel 
invasion, and to repeal the act now in force for those 
purposes/' it is enacted, " that whenever the iaws of 
the United States shall be opposed, or the execution 
thereof obstructed in any state, by combinations too 
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of 
judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the 
marshal by this act, it shall be lawful for the presi- 
dent of the United States to call forth the militia of 
such state, or of any other state or states, as may be 
necessary to suppress such combinations, and to cause 
the laws to be duly executed ; and the use of the 
militia so to be called forth may be continued, if ne- 
cessary, until the expiration of thirty days after the 
commencement of the then next session of Con- 
gress :" "Provided always, that whenever it may be 
necessary in the judgment of the president to use the 
military force hereby directed to be called forth, the 
president shall forthwith, by proclamation, command 
such insurgents to disperse and retire peaceably to 
their respective abodes within a limited time." 

Your committee find that when there was an in- 
surrection in the western parts of Pennsylvania, in 
the year 1794, and the insurgents finally perpetrated 
N gets which amounted to treason, being overt acts of 



MILITAYY ORDERS. 69 

levying war against the United States ; President 
Washington then proceeded most scrupulously, in 
conformity to the act of Congress then in force, " to 
provide for calling forth the militia, to execute the 
laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel 
invasions ;" and troops were called forth from several 
states, at the request of the president, by the gover- 
nours of the same, in the usual manner, according to 
the law and custom. The committee presume, how- 
ever, that it will be readily perceived that nothing in 
the constitution or laws of the United States authori- 
zes the president, under the existing circumstances, 
to call forth the militia of this state, or any part 
thereof. 

By the tenth section of an act of Congress passed 
January 9th, 1809, it is provided, " That it shall be 
lawful for the president of the United States, or such 
other person as he shall have empowered for that pur- 
pose, to employ such part of the land or naval forces, 
or militia of the United States or the territories there- 
of, as -may be judged necessary, in conformity with 
the provisions of this and other acts respecting the 
embargo, for the purpose of preventing the illegal de- 
parture of any ship or vessel, or of detaining, taking- 
possession of, and keeping in custody and guarding 
any specie or articles of domestick growth, produce 
or manufacture ; and also for the purpose of prevent- 
ing and suppressing any armed or riotous assemblage 
of persons, resisting the custom house officers in the 
execution of the laws laying an embargo ; or other- 
wise violating, or assisting and abetting violations of 
the same." 

The present Legislature of this commonwealth 
have " Resolved, that the said act of Congress, pass- 
ed on the ninth day of January, in the present year, 
for enforcing the act laying an embargo and the se- 
veral acts supplementary thereto, is in the opinion of 
the legislature, in many respects unjust, oppressive 
and unconstitutional, and not legally binding on the 
citizens of this state." 



70 jieport &e> 

But even if this act were admitted to be constitu- 
tional, your committee do not find that by the said 
act, Congress have provided any new mode of calling 
forth the militia; and they conceive that the militia 
cannot leg ally be "employed" by the president of 
the United States, or by any person empowered by 
him, till they have been called forth in the mode 
which congress had previously prescribed. 

Your committee find that by the constitution of 
this common wealth, chap, ii.sect. 1, art. 7, the gover- 
nouris " entrusted" with all the "powers incident 
to the offices of captain general and commander in 
chief and admiral, to be exercised agreeably to the 
rules and regulations of the constitution and the laws 
of the land, and not otherwise" 

The same constitution, bill of rights, art. 17, de- 
clares that " the military power shall always be held 
in exact subordination to the civil authority, and be 
governed by it." This great principle is repeatedly 
recognized by our laws, and was respected even 
amidst the honours of a rebellion. By a law passed 
February 20th 1?87 5 the preamble of which states that 
an unnatural and dangerous rebellion actually exist- 
ed at that time in this commonwealth, it is declared, 
that in a free government, where the people have a 
right to bear arms for the common defence, the mili- 
tary power is held in subordination to the civil au- 
thority." 

In the 32d section of the militia law of this com- 
monwealth, passed June 22d, 1793, which provides 
for calling out the militia " in case of threatened or 
actual invasion, insurrection or other publick danger 
or emergency," it is enacted that whenever a detach- 
ment is made in any such case, " the officers, non- 
commissioned officers and privates, being able of bo- 
dy, shall be detailed from the rosters or rolls which 
shall be kept for that purpose." And yonr committee 
do not find that the commander in chief of this com- 
monwealth is authorized, in calling out the militia, 
to select and designate particular officers and parti- 



SPEECH OF 71 

eular corps or men, without regard, " to the rosters 
or rolls which shall be kept i'oi that purpose.-* 
Wherefore Resolved, 

That in the opinion of this house, the said milita- 
ry orders of the first of February instant, issued by 
His Honour Levi Lincoln, lieutenant governour, aird 
commander in chief of this commonwealth, are irre- 
gular, illegal, and inconsistent with the principles of 
the constitution; tending to the destruction of mili- 
tary discipline, an infringement of the rights and de- 
rogatory to the honour of both officers and soldiers ; 
subversive of the militia system, and highly danger- 
ous to the liberties of the people. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

ISAAC MALTBY, Per Order. 



SPEECHES 

Of the Gentlemen who composed the Committee, in the 
Debate, in the House, on accepting the foregoing 
Report. 



Gen. Maltby. 
Mr. Speaker, 

FEELING, sir, a responsibility as one of the com- 
mittee who submitted the report now under the con- 
sideration of the house, and believing it proper that 
I should communicate some of the reasons which in- 
duced me to unite in that report, I claim your indul- 
gence, while I attempt to perform this duty. And 
when I consider the importance of the report as it 



73 



GEN. MALTBY. 



respects the commonwealth and the commander in 
chief; when it is known, that 1 have not been in the 
habit of detaining the house by my observations in 
their debates ; I may the more confidently hope for 
a few moments* attention. 

I shall not deal in round assertions, unaccompani- 
ed with proof. It is my design to examine the con- 
stitution and laws of the United States and the con- 
stitution and the laws of this commonwealth. This 
examination may perhaps be thought more properly 
to belong to those whose profession is the study of 
law ; but, sir, in another capacity, not as a legislator 
(while studying the duties incumbent on me as a mi- 
litia officer) I ought at least to know something of 
the duties of my superiours. While 1 turn the at- 
tention of the house to the constitution and the laws ; 
the report on your honours 5 table and the documents 
which accompany it, shewing the manner in which 
the orders have been issued and executed, will ena- 
ble them to determine, whether the constitution and 
the laws of the country and the privileges of its citi- 
zens have been duly regarded. 

By the United States constitution, art. 2d, sec. 2d, 
" The president shall be commander in chief of the 
arm}' and navy of the United States, and of the mili- 
tia of the several states, when called into the actual ser- 
vice of the United States" Here it will be found, 
that the president has no power over " the militia of 
the several states" until they are " called into actual 
service." How then (it will be inquired) are the 
militia to be called into actual service ? The consti- 
tution, art. 1st, sect. 8, authorizes Congress to " pro- 
vide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws 
of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel inva- 
sions." Here, sir, it is evident that Congress have 
the power to point out the manner in which the mi- 
litia shall be called into actual service, and the presi- 
dent has no power to call them into service, in any 
other way than the one prescribed by Congress. It 
will be proper then to inquire, what provision Con- 



0EN. MALTBY. 7$ 

gress have made for this purpose. In the year 1795 
Congress passed a law in pursuance of the above re- 
cited provision of the constitution ; which you will 
find in the 3d volume United States laws, page 189, 
sec. 2d, which 1 beg leave to read: Be it enacted, 
&c. " That whenever the laws of the United States 
shall be opposed, or the execution thereof obstruct- 
ed, in any state, by combinations too powerful to be 
suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceed- 
dngs, or by the powers vested in the marshals by this 
act, it shall be lawful for the president of the United 
States to call forth the militia of such state, or of any 
other state or states, as may be necessary to suppress 
such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly 
executed ; and the use of the militia so to be called 
forth may be continued, if necessary, until the expi~ 
ration of thirty days after the commencement of the 
then next session of Congress. Provided always, that 
whenever it may be necessary in the judgment of 
the president to use the military force hereby direct* 
ed to be called for th, the president shall forthwith, by 
proclamation, command such insurgents to disperse 
and retire peaceably to their respective abodes, with- 
in a limited time." 

This is the law by which the president is empow- 
ered to call forth the militia, and by which he is bound 
always to publish his proclamation before he issues his 
orders, and never to do this, until the combination is 
too powerful to be suppressed by the civil authori- 
ty. These are all the powers which Congress have 
thought proper to give the president, to call forth the 
militia. The law of 1792, respecting this subject, 
was repealed by the passage of this act. 

But it seems by the general orders issued, Head 
Quarters, 1st February, by His Honour lieutenant 
governour Lincoln, that he relies upon the late law 
of the United States, passed Jan. 9, 1809. Here, sir, 
with your leave, I will read that part of the lieuten- 
ant governour's orders to which I refer, with the 1 1th 
section of the law which he has quoted. The lieu- 
it 



74 SPEECH OF 

tenant governour observes, " In pursuance of these 
constitutional., powers, to prevent a repetition of 
those rash, indiscreet, unwarrantable' 1 and alarming 
evasions of the laws of the Union, which have disgrac- 
ed our state (Mass ) and been injurious to the re- 
spectable citizen and fair trader ; it is provided by 
the eleventh section of an act passed January 9, 18l 9, 
that it shall be lawful for the president of the Unit- 
ed States, or such other person as he shall have em- 
powered for that purpose, to employ such part or' the 
land or naval forces', or militia of the United States or 
the territories thereof, as may be judged necessary, 
in conformity with the provisions of this and other 
acts respecting the embargo, for the purpose of pre- 
venting the illegal departure of any ship or vessel, or 
of detaining, taking possession Of and keeping in cus- 
tody any ship or vessel, or of taking into custody and 
guarding any specie or articles of domestick growth, 
produce or manufacture ; and also for the purpose of 
preventing and suppressing any armed or riotous as- 
semblage of persons resisting the custom house offi- 
cers, in the execution of the laws laying an embargo, 
or otherwise violating and abetting violations of the 
same. 

Now, sir, I contend, that this law does not provide 
for calling out the militia; but only provides for the 
employment of them when they are called out. Here 
is no new method pointed out bv which they may be 
brought into actual service. The law merely points 
out the object of their employment. If gentlemen 
will attend to this act, they must and will be con- 
vinced that the president is not authorized to call out 
the militia in any other manner, than that which is 
prescribed by the law of '95, which requires him first 
to issue his proclamation, &c. and when called into 
actual service agreeably to the provisions of that law, 
the president by this act is only empowered to em- 
ploy them for the purpose of enforcing the embargo^ 
laws. 

But admit for a moment that the president of the 



GEN. MALTBY. 7& 

United States has a right to call out the militia in a 
manner different from the provisions of the law of '95. 
Yet when he calls on the governour as commander in 
chief of the militia of the commonwealth, the power 
to call oat then rests with him, and he (the gover- 
nour) must either abandon our state sovereignty, or he 
must proceed to make his detachments according to 
the laws of the state. 

Let us see then, by an examination of theconsitu- 
tion and laws of this commonwealth, how far they 
have been complied with by the commander in chief. 

By the constitution of Massachusetts, he is oblig- 
ed (chap. 2nd, sect. 1st, art. 7th) " to exercise all the 
powers incident to the offices of commander in chief, 
and captain general, agreeably to the rules and regu- 
lations of the constitution and the laws of the land, 
and not otherwise" Therefore if he departs from 
them, it is a violation of their principles. 

By the laws of Massachusetts, passed in the year 
1787 (tfol. 1, page 366) it is expressly directed, that 
even in a time of insurrection (for this law was pas- 
sed during the rebellion in the western counties) or- 
ders from the commander in chief should go directly 
to the major general, or commanding officer of the 
division, which with leave i will read. Be it enact- 
ed, &c. (t That whenever an insurrection shall have 
taken place in either of the counties of the common- 
wealth, to obstruct the course of justice, or the due 
execution of the laws, or there is reason to apprehend 
that a dangerous insurrection for such purposes will 
be excited, it shall be the duty of the civil officers in 
such county, as well the sheriff as the justices of the 
several courts of judicature within such county, im- 
mediately to give information thereof to his excellen- 
cy the governour, for the time being ; who is hereby 
requested thereupon, to exercise the powers vested 
in him by the constitution, and to give immediate di- 
rection to the major general or commanding officer of 
the division where such insurrection exists, or is appre- 
hended, and if he shall think it necessary, to the ma- 



76 



SPEECH OB 



jor general or commanding officer of any other divi- 
sion or divisions, to detach from his or their division 
or divisions, such part of the militia for the support 
of the civil authority, as he shall judge fully adequate 
for that purpose, and for the apprehension and safe 
keeping of those who may be concerned in such in- 
surrection." 

By this law the path is plainly marked ; and the 
order from the governour is to be made to the next in 
command. But if it were possible that it should be 
made more plain, look at the militia law, passed in 
1793, 32d sect, where it is enacted, "That whenever 
in case of threatened or actual invasion, insurrection 
or other publick danger or emergency, the militia or 
any part thereof shall be ordered out or detached," 
in all cases when the detachment is made, " the offi- 
cers, non-commissioned officers and privates, being 
able of body, shall be detached from the rosters or rolls 
which shall be kept for that purpose." Therefore it 
is evident from the laws of Massachusetts, that or- 
ders for*detachments must pass from the commander 
in chief to the major general, or next in command, 
and that inferiour officers, in different grades, are not 
to receive their orders directly from the commander 
in chief, but each is to look to his next superiour of- 
ficer for his orders. 

What, sir, would be the consequence, if these pro- 
ceedings, so unprecedented, should pass unnoticed ? 
The principle adopted is ruinous ! — No military man 
can avoid seeing, that it goes to the destruction of 
every military principle. It divests the officers of 
their constitutional powers, and deprives them of 
their rights ! When an officer receives a commission, 
it gives him certain powers and rights, of which he 
cannot regularly be deprived without trial. All the 
officers, a part of whose men are taken from their 
command without their knowledge or consent, are 
deprived of the right to exercise all the power given 
them by their commissions ; and in the examination 
of these proceedings of the Lieutenant Governour^ I 



MR. SARGENT, 77 

find one Brigadier General has but six companies left 
under his command ; the remaining companies being 
detached, without his orders, knowledge, or consent, 
and subject to the call and discretion of the Collector. 
Upon the same principle by which the commander in 
chief is permitted to take a part, he may take all his 
men, and deprive him of his entire command. If 
the principle be admitted that he may designate of- 
ficers, he may also select soldiers, and where there 
are ten, one favourite may be secretly armed for the 
destruction of the remaining nine. 

It was not my design (when I rose) to point outthe 
evil consequences of such irregular measures, nor 
my wish to occupy the whole ground. But before I sit 
down, I will state one fact, which perhaps may have 
a considerable effect in the decision of the question 
before the house. Governour Trumbull, of Connec- 
ticut, received orders from the Secretary of War, si- 
milar to those received by Lieutenant Governour 
Lincoln, and after advising with the best counsel- 
lors, he replied to the Secretary, that he would never 
have an agency in the execution of laws so unconsti- 
tutional and so destructive to the rights of the peo- 
ple. And it is to be exceedingly regretted by every 
citizen of Massachusetts, that this noble example 
had not been imitated by our commander in chief; 
who thus would have exhibited to the world a due 
regard to the rights of the people and the sovereign- 
ty of the STATE. 

Mr. Sargent. 
Mr. Sargent observed that there was a time when 
certain gentlemen exerted all their talents and all 
their eloquence in favour of the constitution and the 
laws — the liberties of the people and the rights of 
man; — The people were every thing — their rulers were 
nothing — or rather they were the servants or slaves 
of the people — no character was too elevated to be 
assailed, no reputation too fair to be attacked ; no 
services a security against reproach. Jay, who made 



78 SPEECH OF 

a treaty, from which this country derived great bene- 
fit, was reviled, abused and burnt in effigy. Hamil- 
ton was persecuted, calumniated, and finally mur- 
dered ; and even Washington himself escaped not 
the foul andbitter toi.gue of slander. But, sir, times 
are changed, and men have changed with them — To 
hear gentlemen talk now, one would think that the 
people had no rights, and that the constituted au- 
thorities were absolute — the maxim of the present 
day, is " The King can do no wrong." 

It is no pleasure to me, sir, to animadvert upon the 
measures or conduct of men high in office ; but when 
called upon to perform a duty, I hope to execute it 
without fear or favour. 

Having had the honour to be one of the commit- 
tee who made the leport now before us, I will with 
your permission, sir, give some account of the man- 
ner in which the committee proceeded. Having as- 
certained the facts which are stated in the report, 
and which nogentleman has called in question, their 
first inquiry naturally was, had the President of the 
United States a right to give to the commander in 
chief of this Commonwealth the directions which by 
the orders of the Lieutenant Governour it appears he 
did give to him ? 

By the constitution of the United States, Con- 
gress is authorized " to provide for the calling forth 
the militia to execute the laws of the Union, sup- 
press insurrections, and repel invasions; " and the 
President is the commander in chief of the army and 
navy of the United States, and of the militia of the 
several states, when called into ike actual service of the 
United States." There is no militia of the United 
States. — The militia belong to the several states'; and 
when they are to be brought into the service of the 
general government, they must be called forth ac- 
cording to the laws of the states respectively. 

Pursuant to the powers vested in them by the con- 
stitution, Congress passed a law in 1792, providing 
for calling forth the militia, &c. and in the year 1794, 



MR. SARGENT. 79 

when there was an insurrection in the western parts 
of Pennsylvania, the militia of several states were 
called forth according to that law. By recurring to 
the history of those days, we shall see what was then 
the practical construction ot the law, how scrupul- 
ously President Washington conformed to it, and 
with what exemplary discretion he conducted at that 
important and delicate crisis. 

The insurgents had finally perpetrated acts which 
amounted to treason, being overt acts of levying war 
against the United States. The facts were certified 
by an associate justice, according to the law in force 
— md President Washington issued his Proclama- 
tion, calling upon these deluded people to disperse 
and retire peaceably to their several homes, within a 
limited and reasonable time. The governour of 
Pennsylvania issued a proclamation, dated on the 
same day with and recognizing the President's. At 
the request of the President, measures were takenby 
the states of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, for calling forth part of their militia. 
The President issued another proclamation, and the 
troops were finally embodied. The governours of 
Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey led on their 
respective troops, and Washington himself accom- 
panied the army till his presidential duty required 
his return to Philadelphia. On parting with the 
army, he sent a message to Governour Lee, the com- 
mander in chief, in which he particularly recom- 
mended, " that every officer and soldier would con- 
stantlv bear in mind, that he came to support the 
laws/' &c. — '• That the essential principles of the go- 
vernment, confine the province of the military, when 
called forth on such occasions, to these two objects — 
1st. To combat and subdue all who may be found in 
arms, in opposition to the national will and authori- 
ty. 2d. To aid and support the civil magistrates, in 
bringing offenders to justice/' He thus concludes— 
" The dispensation of jthis justice belongs to the civil 
magistrate — and let it be your pride and glory to have 
Me sacred deposit there inviolate." 



80 SPEECH OP 

I will .now, sir, revert to the report, and as the hour 
is late and the house impatient, will comment only 
on some parts of it, which as I run it over, may strike 
me as important. The officers who have been desig- 
nated and appointed by His Honour, are ordered to 
" make correct muster and pay rolls of such militia as 
shall be employed in actual service, and transmit the 
same to the war department of the United Slates." 
They are therefore to be considered as troops of the 
United States — are they to be under the law martial, 
sir ? may they be dealt with according to the rules 
and discipline of war ? Are gentlemen aware of all 
the consequences which may flow from this mea- 
sure ? 

The number of men under the seven captains who 
have been designated and appointed, could not be as- 
certained, because the returns of companies never ap- 
pear in the adjutant general's office. This circum- 
stance of itself, sir, manifests the irregularity and im- 
propriety of this mode of proceeding. Neither the 
commander in chief nor the adjutant general can tell 
how many men they have ordered out — in fact they 
don't know that the officers who have been designat- 
ed, are in existence. Some of them may have been 
arrested by order of their superiour officers to be tri- 
ed by a court martial. These and many other diffi- 
culties are avoided by the usual manner of issuing 
military orders. 

By the orders of Col. Badger, 2346 of the militia of 
the town of Boston, in addition to other troops, may 
be put under the command of the collector of this 
district, be he whom he may ; subject to his discre- 
tion, to aid him to discharge his duties, prevent disor- 
ders and opposition to the authority of government. If 
the collector should be of opinion that this house 
was acting in opposition to the authority of govern- 
ment, why might he not order his troops hither to 
disperse or punish us ? Part of the officers and men 
of Col. Badger's infantry, who are now ordered to 
hold themselves in readiness at the call of the collec- 



MR. SARGENT. 8i 

tor, were lately detached as part of this state's quota 
of the 100,000 men drafted for the service of the Uni- 
ted States, and have been put under the command of 
another colonel belonging to Roxbury. This is ano- 
ther proof of the irregularity of the procedure. In- 
deed, sir, these men are. now under three distinct com* 
mandsf They may be ordered by the collector to 
march one way — by brigadier general Winslow ano- 
ther—and they may receive different orders from co- 
lonel Barnes. 

The gentleman from Hopkinton says that he thinks 
the commander in chief has done perfectly right, and 
in his opinion there would have been no more pro- 
priety in his having transmitted the orders in the 
usual mode, through the hands of the superiour of- 
ficers, than there would have been in general Wash- 
ington's having sent orders to oass through the hands 
of the former commander at West Point after he had 
been informed of his treachery. Does the gentleman 
mean to say that all the major generals of this com- 
monwealth are Arnolds, except general Brickett of 
Haverhill ? I have had the pleasure to hear that 
general Brickett has sent in his resignation. 

The gentleman from Dorchester says that by the 
constitution of the United States, all laws passed by 
Congress are binding, any state law to the contrary 
notwithstanding — and adds, that the militia are un- 
der the immediate command of the president, and he 
may call out or empower any individual to select any 
portion of them. I did not think, sir, that any gen- 
tleman in this house would rise in his place and ad- 
vance a doctrine like this. I have no belief that the 
president has any command whatever over any part 
of the militia till they are legally and regularly called 
forth for the service of the United States. If it were 
as the gentleman says it is, what government could 
possibly be more arbitrary ? 

[ Mr. Morton rose to explain — he was sorry the gen- 
tleman should misrepresent him — he had not said that 



82 SPEECH OF 

the president might send his orders to any individual, 

I did not misrepresent the gentleman, said Mr, 
Sargent, and I am sorry that he should pretend I 
did — he certainly said so ; and in confirmation of it, 
he added, that the lieutenant governour did not is- 
sue these orders as commander in chief, but as a 
private man> in whom the president had seen fit to 
place confidence, &c. Yet His Honour says in the 
orders, he had been requested, as commanding offi- 
cer of the militia of this commonwealth, to appoint 
these officers — and the orders are dated at Head 
Quarters, and countersigned in the usual manner by 
the adjutant general — " by order of the commander in 
chief." 

The argument of the gentleman went to prove that 
your militia laws are good for nothing. — Repeal them, 
sir, and where is your militia ! 

We say, sir, that these orders are irregular — milita- 
ry men will immediately pronounce them so. The 
committee inquired of the adjutant general if he had 
ever issued orders in this way before. He believed 
he had, to the Independent Cadets, in the absence of 
the major general. Col. Apthorp remembers no such 
instance, nor do other officers of whom we inquired. 
But if that was ever the case, it must be remember- 
ed that this corps does not belong to the line. The 
procedure is, therefore, virtually acknowledged to be 
without a precedent. 

That the orders are illegal and inconsistent with 
the principles of the constitution, is shown in the 
report. They undoubtedly tend to the destruction 
of military discipline, and are an infringement of the_^ 
rights and derogatory to the honour of both officers 
and soldiers. You would in this way make an offi- 
cer a ridiculous cypher — you don*t remove him from 
office, but you take the men from his command ; 
while you would impose unequal burthens upon 
some part of the militia, you might deprive another 
part of their just share of honourable service. They 



COL. THATCHER. 83 

are subversive of the militia system. What would 
become of your divisions, brigades, regiments, bat- 
talions, and what would be the case of your brigade 
majors, arid adjutants, your rosters and your rolls — if 
all the forms, regularity and order which belong to 
that system are to be despised and trampled upon ? 

Finally, sir, the orders are said to be dangerous to 
the liberties of the people. If the principle contended 
for is correct to day, it must be correct to morrow. If 
one president can give such instructions, so can ano- 
ther. And if they are to be obeyed, then any por- 
tion of the militia may at any time be selected and 
placed under the controul of any individual, subject 
to his discretion, to aid him in preventing what he 
may deem an opposition to the authority of govern- 
ment, &c. Let gentlemen of all parties duly weigh 
this subject, and then say if any thing can be more 
absolute or dangerous. If this principle is correct, 
sir, what necessity is there for drafting men, or rais- 
ing volunteers ? You have already a standing army, 
composed of the whole militia of the country. 

Col. Thatcher. 
Mr. Speaker, 

As the house has voted not to adjourn, and there 
appears to be a disposition to take the question this 
evening, I shall confine myself to a course more li- 
mited than I intended. When gentlemen reflect 
upon the usages of other legislative bodies, when 
they recollect that the House" of Representatives of 
the United States can be kept together all night to 
pass an additional embargo act, I hope they will dis- 
cover no impatience on this occasion — and that they 
will allow us time to bring the whole subject before 
the house. But when, sir, I find no military man 
attempting to defend the late unprecedented orders— 
when I see gentlemen of talents in the minority 
searching in vain for law or usas^e to justify this pro- 
cedure—it is rather because other gentlemen of the 



84 SPEECH OP 

committee, though they have defended the report 
with great correctness and perspicuity, have profes- 
sed not to embrace the whole subject, than from any 
necessity of the case, that 1 address the house on this 
occasion. But, sir, we w ill endeavour to take a view 
of the objections raised to the report, and to examine 
such parte of the constitution and laws of the United 
Sites rind or* this commonwealth as seem most appli- 
cable to this subject. 

And first, sir, it may be observed that gentlemen 
have bottomed their defence of the executive upon 
the position thai the president, being the comman- 
der in chief of the militia of the United States, had, 
as such, a right to issue his orders to any officer of 
the militia. This, sir, is a gross errour in the outset. 
There is no such thing as militia of the United States. 
The constitution speaks of "the militia" and of "such 
parts of them as may be employed in the service of the 
United States." As in art. 1st, sect. 8th, " The Con- 
gress shall have power to provide for calling forth the 
militia, to execute the laws of the Union, and sup- 
press insurrections and repel invasions, to provide 
for organizing, arming and disciplining the militia, 
and for governing such part of them as may be em- 
ployed in the service of the United States, reserving 
to the states respectively the appointment of the offi- 
cers, and the authority of training the militia, &c." 
(I quote this whole passage because J shall have oc- 
casion to refer to it again) and the constitution also 
speaks of "the militia of the several states," as in art. 
2d, sect. 2d, " The president shall be commander in 
chief of the army and navy of the United States, and 
of the militia of the several states when called into the ac- 
tual service of the United States" Until the militia of 
the several slates are called into the actual service of 
the United States, in a mode provided by Congress, 
which can be done only in certain cases, the president 
has no command over the militia. As my friend 
from Boston (Mr. Sargent) has said, until this is done, 
there is no more privity between the president and 



COL. THATCHER. 8o 

a n inferiour officer of Massachusetts, than there is 
between that gentleman and the dey of Algiers. 

It will be admitted that the federal constitution 
was a compact between independent states, possess- 
ing the rights of sovereignty, jealous of their state 
powers, unwilling to yield more to the general gov. 
eminent than was absolutely necessary for the pur- 
poses of the Union. There was no point of which the 
states were more tenacious than the right of bearing 
arms, and the appointment of the officers of their own 
militia; and we may add, no rights more strongly se- 
cured to the states by the constitution. So jealous 
were the states of this power to controui the miiitia 5 
that they would not invest the president of the Uni- 
ted States with authority to call forth the militia even 
in cases of the greatest emergency. We find by the 
section of the constitution already quoted, that Con- 
gress alone has the power to provide for calling out 
the militia of the several states, and only in certain 
cases. Gentlemen contend that Congress has so ex- 
ercised this power as to authorize the president, and 
his substitutes, to call out the militia for certain pur- 
poses contemplated in the last act respecting what 
they have been pleased to call an embargo. The 
gentleman from Dorchester (Mr. Morton) has read a 
part of the sixth article of the constitution, viz. The 
"constitution and the laws of the United States 
which shall be made in pursuance thereof, shall be 
the supreme law of the land." I will thank thegen- 
tleman to take with him also the twelfth article of 
the amendments to the constitution. 

" The powers not delegated to the United States 
by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the 
states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to 
the people." All laws therefore which can constiru- 
tionally be made by the general government, must be 
founded on powers clearly vested in that government 
by the constitution. 

This then being admitted, Mr. Speaker, and also 
that Congress alone has power " to provide for call- 



86 SPEECH OF 

ing forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
"to suppress insurrections and repel invasions," let 
us inquire in what manner Congress has exercised 
this power — whether any of the cases in which the 
militia may be called forth, exist in Massachusetts, 
and if so, whether the requisitions of the law for call- 
ing out the militia have been complied with. With 
respect to the first point, we find that by a law of the 
United States, passed Feb. 28, 179-5, entitled " An 
Act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute 
the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and 
repel invasions," " whenever, the laws of the United 
States shall be opposed, or the execution thereof ob- 
structed in any state by combinations too powerful to 
be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceed- 
ings, or by the powers vested in the marshals , by this act, 
it shall be lawful for the president of the United 
States to call forth the militia of such state, or of any 
other state or states, as may be necessary to suppress 
such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly 
executed, and the use of the militia so to be called 
forth, may be continued, if necessary, until the expi- 
ration of thirty days after the commencement of the 
then next session of Congress." 

Sect. 3d, " Provided always," that whenever it 
may be necessary, in the judgment of the president, 
to use the military force hereby directed to be called 
forth, the president shall forthwith, " by proclama- 
tion, command such insurgents to disperse, and re- 
tire peaceably to their respective abodes, within a li- 
mited time. 

In the 4th sect, we find that " no officer, non-com- 
missioned officer or private of the militia, shall be 
compelled to serve more than three months, after his 
arrival at the place of rendezvous, in any one year, 
nor more than in due rotation with every other able 
bodied man of the same rank in the battalion to 
which he belongs." 

The 9th sect, of this law ordains that the marshals 
of the several districts, and their deputies, shall have 



COL. THATCHER. 87 

the same powers in executing the laws of the United 
States, as sheriffs and their deputies in the several 
states, have by law, in executing the laws of the re- 
spective states." 

This law repeals a former one upon the same sub- 
ject, but the law which I have now cited is the only 
one now in force, in which Congress has exercised 
this power agreeably to the provisions of the consti- 
tution. 

Do any of the cases in which the militia may by 
this law be called forth exist in this state ? Have 
the laws of the United States been opposed, or the 
execution thereof obstructed by combinations too 
powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of 
judicial proceedings ? It will not be pretended that 
the least obstruction or impediment has been oppos- 
ed to the courts of the United States or to their ordi- 
nary course of judicial proceedings in this common- 
wealth. Have the marshals or their deputies been 
resisted ? Have there been combinations to oppose 
the government too powerful to be suppressed by the 
marshals, armed with the whole power of the sheriffs 
with the posse comitatus at their heels ? No such 
thing is pretended. The gentleman from Worcester, 
(Mr. Bangs) indeed tells us that a man was taken 
from a vessel some time since by a few individuals 
in disguise, but he also informs us that he was almost 
immediately released ; surely he will not say that 
this case was one contemplated by this law. Is it 
necessary " in the judgment of the president" " to 
use the military force directed by said law to be call- 
ed forth" in certain cases ? Has he discovered any 
insurgents in Massachusetts? And has he, as he did 
in regard to certain people in Vermont, issued his 
proclamation to the poor deluded rebels of Massachu- 
setts, ordering them to disperse, and go to their pla- 
ces of abode ! " You all do know" that there has 
been no such thing. The gentleman from Boston 
has stated with what caution — with what modera- 
tion — with what delicacy — the militia was called 



88 SPEECH OP 

forth by the illustrious Washington, at a time when a 
most alarming rebellion existed in Pennsylvania. 
The steps pointed out by a law then in force, similar 
to the one before recited, were strictly pursued. 
There was no attempt then made by the president to 
select and designate particular subordinate officers to 
enforce the laws. An order, or rather a lequest, was 
made to the commanders in chief of several states to 
call forth a certain number of militia, and the com- 
mand was given to one of the governours, even after 
the militia was in the field. The whole business was 
conducted with a scrupulous regard to the constitu- 
tion and the laws and to military usage. 

But, sir, gentlemen, conscious that the late orders 
cannot be justified under the laws previously pass- 
ed, have called to their aid the 11th section of the 
last embargo law. Let us inquire whether this 1 lth 
section be constitutional, and if so, whether it has 
repealed the former law for calling forth the militia 
in certain cases, or enacted any new mode for exer- 
cising this power. Here, sir, I wish to be under- 
stood not to intrench myself behind the opinion ex- 
pressed by this legislature with respect to the un- 
constitutionality of this law. I am desirous to ex- 
amine it without reference to this opinion. The 
substantial part of this section is, that " It shall be 
lawful for the president of the United States, or such 
other person as he shall have empowered for that 
purpose, to employ such part of the land and naval 
forces, or militia of the United States or the territo- 
ries thereof, as may be judged necessary in conformi- 
ty with the provisions of this and other acts, respect- 
ing the embargo, for the purpose of preventing the 
illegal departure of any ship or vessel, or of detain- 
ing, taking possession of and keeping in custody and 
guarding any specie or articles of domestick growth, 
produce or manufacture ; and also for the purpose of 
preventing and suppressino- any armed or riotous as- 
semblage of persons resisting the custom house offi- 
cers in the execution of the laws laying an embargo : 



COL. THATCHER. 89 

or otherwise violating or assisting and abetting vio- 
lations of the same." With respect to the constitu- 
tionality of this section, it is to be observed that in 
order to make way for the power intended to be giv- 
en, the militia are in this section called the militia of 
the United States, because as I have already stated* 
the president has no power over the militia of the 
several states until they have been called forth by 
law in certain cases. But " it shall be lawful for the 
president, or such other person as he shall have em- 
powered for that purpose, to employ the militia," &c 
Thus then, sir, it appears that Congress has attempt- 
ed not only to invest their favourite president with 
all the powers of generalissimo of the land forces," &c> 
lord high admiral of the seas ; but he is to "employ" 
the whole militia, if he thinks proper, for the purpose 
of enforcing the embargo laws, without the least no- 
tice or formality. But this is not all. The presi- 
dent is not to exercise these tremendous powers him- 
self solely, but he is anthorised to " empower" any 
person with like authority — so that if this be consti- 
tutional, the president can invest any person, citizen 
or foreigner, officer or soldier, with powers superiour 
not only to all our officers, but which " puts at 
nought" all our state governments and all our laws. 
We have heard of a people who have invested their 
chief magistrate with high powers during life, with 
power also to name his successour; but I believe it 
was reserved for this Congress to authorize an indi- 
vidual not only to exercise supreme power himself, 
but to invest him with power " of substituting one 
or more agents under him" who should be clothed 
with the same plenary powers. To shew this is not 
a construction merely imaginary, if you will turn to 
His Honour's orders you will find that he has actu- 
ally accepted this power of attorney, and that he has 
gone even beyond the president's power, which ex- 
tends only to employing the militia " efficaciously to 
maintain the authority of the laws respecting the 
embargo." For His Honour has issued his orders 

M 



90 SPEECH OF 

to these officers " to be prepared and hold themselves 
in readiness with those under their command, com- 
pletely armed and equipped, at the call of the collec- 
tor, and subject to his discretion, to aid him with their 
whole force, or such part thereof as may be sufficient, 
to enable him within his district, to discharge his 
duties, prevent disorders and opposition to the authori- 
ty of government, and carry the aforesaid laws into 
execution. Thus, sir, you perceive that we have al- 
ready fifteen or sixteen thousand soldiers in this state, 
with officers who have been selected for their "known 
respect for the" embargo "laws" and at the call, 
and subject to the discretion, of the collectors — 
among other things to " prevent disorders and oppo- 
sition to the authority of government." If the col- 
lector, or in his absence the deputy collector, should 
imagine that this legislature had manifested " an op- 
position to the authority of government," I see no- 
thing to prevent him, under his power of attorney, 
from putting himself at the head of the whole mili- 
tia of Boston, and ordering his columns to march to 
this House , and compelling the Legislature to dis- 
perse. If, sir, Congress have power to make such a 
law as this, what shall prevent them from exercising 
the most unlimited and arbitrary powers ? If Con- 
gress can invest the president and his substitutes with 
these powers, there is no longer any constitution — 
vour liberties are a name — your forms or legislation a 
mockery. Instead of free republicks united by so- 
lemn compact, under a federal government with li- 
mited powers, we have become a consolidated em- 
pire under the absolute controul of a few men — we 
have sunk into the deep abyss of a frightful despo- 
tism. Sir, are gentlemen willing to maintain princi- 
ples which inevitably lead to these consequences? 
Are the boasting ** republicans" of Massachusetts 
ready to sacrifice the state governments upon the al- 
tar of party ? Are they ready to abandon the favour- 
ite maxims of Hancock and Adams, and to prostrate 
all our rights — all our institutions, to carry into ef- 
fect this mad svstem of destruction ? 



COL. THATCHER, 91 

But, sir, enough has now been said respecting the 
unconstitutionality of this section ; let us inquire 
whether it has repealed the former law for calling 
forth the militia in certain cases, or enacted any new 
mode of exercising this power. It is a given princi- 
ple that a law touching the same subject as any for- 
mer law, but neither respecting nor noticing it, the 
last does not repeal the former law, except so far as 
the two laws may be contradictory or inconsistent 
with each other. 

In the case under consideration, this law not only 
does not contradict or repeal the law respecting the 
manner of calling forth the militia in certain cases, 
but it does not prescribe any mode of calling them 
forth. Gentlemen have been obliged to dwell upon 
this word " employ," and they would make this single 
magical word contain within itself a virtual repeal of 
the law for calling forth the militia before cited, and 
also a new law for this purpose — to such a subterfuge 
are gentlemen driven in an attempt to justify what 
cannot be defended. Sir, the gentleman from Hat- 
field, General Maltby, has very justly said, that nei- 
ther the president nor the lieutenant governour can 
constitutionally "employ" the militia until they are 
called forth agreeably to the provisions of the law for 
that purpose. If gentlemen say this is reductio ad 
absurdum, it makes the laws a mere nullity—- we an- 
swer that we are bound to give their full effect to the 
constitution and the laws, and to weigh them in the 
scales of common sense and sound construction. 
But if the Congress of the United States, either from 
want of discrimination, or from their extreme haste 
to rivet the chains upon the necks of the people, 
have omitted a link in one of their chains ; it is not 
for us to supply the deficiency. 

I think then, Mr. Speaker, we have made out our 
case so far. We have shown that Congress had no 
right to invest the president or his substitutes with 
these powers. Consequently that he exceeded his 
constitutional authority in attempting to carry them 



92 SPEECH OF 

into effect. It follows of course that His Honour 
the lieutenant governour cannot be justified in act- 
ing under this void authority. But even if this diffi- 
culty did not exist, we consider the mode in which 
the orders have been issued and executed, as highly 
irregular, as deviating from the provisions of our state 
constitution and laws, and in short deserving all the 
expressions of disapprobation contained in this reso- 
lution. It is indeed extremely to be regretted that 
His Honour had not, like the patriotick governour of 
Connecticut, refused to have any participation in 
carrying into effect this most oppressive and uncon- 
stitutional law — that he condescended above all to 
select and appoint these officers, and to order out 
these men in a manner unknown to our laws, and to 
military usage, and to give offence to the whole body 
of the militia. Sir, I conceive this has been a great- 
er offence to those selected than to those omitted. 
It clearly implies that they were considered as fit in- 
struments to be employed, under the command of a 
new species of military officers, the collectors, to be sub- 
ject to their discretion, and to do what the great body 
of the militia could not be expected to perform. Sir, 
let me not be understood to convey any censure upon 
these officers or men. — I know but one of them per- 
sonally, I do not believe that they will generally 
conceive themselves honoured by the choice, or that 
they will attempt to execute the orders. One of 
these officers, the only major general appointed for 
this business, has already resigned his commission, 
although he had less cause of complaint as to the 
mode of transmitting the orders. I presume the 
officers selected would sooner follow the example of 
Gen. Brickett, than put themselves under the con- 
troul of the collector, or have any agency in enforc- 
ing this law. 

But in order to ascertain whether the resolution 
offered by the committee can be supported, let us in- 
quire what are the military powers vested in the 
commander in chief of this commonwealth in relation 



COL. THATCHER. 93 

to this subject — and how these powers are to be ex- 
ercised. We find by the constitution of Massachu- 
setts, chap. 2d, sect. 7th, that the governour of this 
commonwealth for the time being, is intrusted with 
a variety of powers " incident to the office of captain 
general and commander in chief, to be exercised agree- 
ably to the rules and regulations of the constitution^ and 
the latos of the land, and not otherwise" Those gen- 
tlemen who seem disposed to justify the measures 
under consideration, by this clause of the constitu- 
tion, will, I think, relinquish that mode of justifica- 
tion, when they consider the last part of this clause — 
for, sir, this is not a military government, in which the 
powers incident to the office of commander in chief 
are undefined, or of doubtful construction. — No offi- 
cer in this commonwealth, however elevated his sta- 
tion, is above the constitution and the laws. What 
then are " the laws of the land" relative to this sub- 
ject ? Here it might be said that there is a military 
as well as a civil common law, consisting of princi- 
ples and precedents established by immemorial usage. 
I could state a great variety of cases, such for exam- 
ple as many principles which are universally adopted 
by courts martial, which are known in no statute, 
but depend on the military common law. I should 
say that common law, and common sense, would dic- 
tate, that when the commander in chief issues an or- 
der for making a detachment of the militia compre- 
hending officers of various grades and in various parts 
of the commonwealth, men from a great number of 
divisions, brigades and regiments, these orders must 
pass in the regular course through the different 
grades of officers, till at last they reach the privates. 
If you adopt any other course, you throw the whole 
system into confusion, or rather you have no longer 
any system ; and you had better have a levy " en 
masse" in some particular section of the country of 
as many men as are wanted for the purpose. But, 
sir, we are not compelled in this instance to rely on 
the common law — we have an express statute law, 



$4 SPEECH OF 

exactly applicable to this case. I shall not here cite 
a number of passages in our laws which might be in- 
troduced, because the 32d section of the " act for re- 
gulating and governing the militia of the common- 
wealth of Massachusetts" &c. passed June 22d, 1793, 
is perfectly in point. This section enacts, that " when- 
ever, in case of threatened or actual invasion, insur- 
rection, or oth©r publick danger or emergency, the 
militia, or any part thereof, shall be ordered out or 
detached, &c. the officers, non-commissioned officers 
and privates, being able of body, shall be detailed from 
the rosters or rolls which shall be kept for that pur- 
pose." And in the same section we find it enacted, 
that " any officer having a commission in the militia, 
who shall neglect or refuse to execute any orders he 
may receive from his superiour officer, to make a de- 
tachment of the corps under his command, it shall 
be the duty of the officer who issued euch orders im- 
mediately to arrest such delinquent officer, bring 
him to trial therefor, before a court martial, and forth- 
with give information thereof to the commander in 
chief; and the officer who issued the order which 
shall not have been executed as aforesaid, shall, im- 
mediately after arresting the delinquent officer, pro- 
ceed, by himself or some other officer under his com- 
mand, to make and complete the detachment order- 
ed as aforesaid." Here, then, is a certain, definite 
mode, clearly pointed out for making a detachment 
of the militia, in case of invasion, "insurrection, or 
other publick danger or emergency." Gentlemen 
will not deny that these words embrace the present 
case, as the president, the lieutenant governour and 
they themselves have stated it. Here we have a 
law as clear and explicit as language can make it, 
pointing to the course which His Honour ought to 
have pursued. " The officers, non-commissioned 
officers and privates, being able of body," ought to 
have been " detached from the rosters or rolls kept for 
that purpose" This is the only course consistent 
with order and equality. It follows that the orders 



COL. THATCHER. 95 

for making a detachment from a variety of divisions, 
brigades, &c. must pass through the regular grades 
of officers — for how can you make a detachment 
from the rolls and rosters, unless you consult those 
who have these rolls and rosters ? How, for exam- 
ple, can you detach one hundred men from any regi- 
ment without consulting the colonel and the captains 
of that regiment ? Suppose the adjutant general 
should attempt to do it — you will find that he has 
no returns of companies. If gentlemen say, He 
should take one or more companies — the answer is, 
this is not a detachment "from the rolls or rosters 
kept for that purpose," but a levy "en masse." But 
pursue this subject one step farther. I have quoted 
the law which enacts " that no officer, non-commis- 
sioned officer or private of the militia, shall be com- 
pelled to serve more than three months after his ar- 
rival at the place of rendezvous in any one year, nor 
more than in due rotation with every other able bodied 
man of the same rank in the battalion to which he 
belongs." How in the name of common sense will 
you make your second detachment, even if you 
could complete the first ? 

Sir, I need not enlarge — military men will see*at a 
glance, and every gentleman must discover, that you 
would soon have " confusion worse confounded." It 
would have been enough for us to have shewn what 
the law is. But as the srentleman from Worcester 
(Mr. Bangs) has attempted to be witty on this sub- 
ject, and to ridicule all this military system, which he 
is pleased to term parade, I thought proper to give 
him some new ideas upon the subject. I will just 
remark, sir, before I dismiss this law, that the latter 
part of this section which provides that in case any 
commissioned officer shall neglect, &c. te> execute 
the detachment, &c. that the officer shall be arrest- 
ed and tried, and information shall be given of such 
arrest to the commander in chief; and the remainder 
of the clause quoted, proves that officers in the in- 
termediate grades between the commander in chief 



96 SPEECH OP 

and the officer of the lowest grade concerned in mak- 
ing the detachment are to be consulted. Sir, the 
gentleman from Boston has stated the endless con- 
fusion which would ensue among officers by any 
other course, and I shall not trouble the House with 
other illustrations which might be made of this point. 
I defy the gentleman to produce an instance, except 
the present, in which a detachment has been made 
or attempted to be made in any other mode than that 
contemplated by law. The United States have late- 
ly made two detachments of militia of 100 5 000each. 
How were these made ? In the etablished mode. The 
rank and the rights of officers and men were respect- 
ed, and the detachments were made with despatch 
and regularity. But it was left for this last embargo 
law, in breaking down the barrieis of the constitu- 
tion and the laws, to prostrate the militia system in 
the general wreck. It was left for those who attempt- 
ed to execute this law, to adopt the plan of selecting 
and designating officers of the militia who could best 
be confided in. 

Mr. Speaker, I have yet to notice one mode of 
getting rid of any responsibility for these measures, 
which indicates a fertility of imagination and a bold- 
ness of design for which I give gentlemen all due cre- 
dit. Sir, they boldly cut the knot which they can- 
not untie, and they tell you that the lieutenant go- 
vernour did not, in this instance, act as commander 
in chief of this commonwealth. If gentlemen had 
examined the order of the lieutenant governour, of 
the first of February, they would not have hazarded 
this assertion. If they will look at the third para- 
graph of the order they will find these words — "Thus 
authorized and called on to execute the laws of the 
Union, and to cause its authority to be respected, 
the president has directed the secretary of war to re- 
quest me, as commanding officer of the militia of this 
commonwealth, to appoint some officer of the militia 
of known respect for the laws,"&c. This order is 
dated Head Quarters, Boston, Feb. 1, 1509, signed 



COL. THATCHER. 97 

by His Honour, and countersigned by William Don- 
nison, adjutant general. After reading these passa- 
ges from the order, I can only say that His Honour 
has fallen into the hands of most unmerciful friends. 
It would have been more kind as well as more pru- 
dent to have attempted no justification at all, than 
one which involves such palpable absurdity. As to 
the principle, upon which this ingenious kind of de- 
fence is founded, that the president may direct his 
orders to any body, and that any body is obliged to 
order out the conscripts, I have already, perhaps, 
said enough. I will only add, that it is the French 
system of police. The president has only to address 
his mandate to the minister of the interiour, and if 
you have not a complete system of espionage, you 
may thank the spirit of your people — or the timidity 
and forbearance of the government. — But the danger 
is past with the exposure of these measures, and we 
ought to thank an overruling Providence, which has 
prevented the horrours of bloodshed and a civil war. 

Sir, I must add a few remarks upon the facts fur- 
nished by the schedule of the adjutant general — be- 
cause it has been said that the mode of designating 
these officers has been very proper and unexceptionab- 
le. It appears that this has been " the unkindest 
stab of all." You will perceive that in selecting these 
officers, other considerations than the apportionment 
of troops to the size and importance of the places to 
be guarded, seem to have governed the commander 
in chief. For example, we find the comparatively 
inconsiderable port of Barnstable guarded by a briga- 
dier general with two thousand four hundred and se- 
venty-four infantry, rank and file ; while the popu- 
lous and important port of Salem is left to the com- 
mand of a captain. In the town of Wiscasset, we 
find a ^brigadier general, a colonel and two majors 
in commission ; a captain is selected to command at 
this port. 

Thus, sir, having gone through what belongs to 
the argument, and having, as I conceive, established 

N 



98 SPEECH, &C. 

the premises, the conclusions, as expressed in the 
resolutions,. follow of course — I need not repeat them. 
The responsibility must rest with the commander in 
chief. He is amenable to the people, and to this 
their legislature, for an abuse of power. 

But, sir, we have not proposed an impeachment; 
although it was his duty to have been better inform- 
ed upon this subject, even as a lawyer. Though his 
deviation from all law and all military usage has 
been " gross, open, palpable," yet candour would 
dictate that His Honour, having never been a mili- 
tary office/, may not have seen the extent and ten- 
dency of these measures. Although we were bound 
by oath to support the constitution ; although we 
were compelled by duty to vindicate the honour of 
our violated laws, and to assert the rights of our in- 
sulted sovereignty, we are not obliged to pursue 
crimination after the danger of deviation, by being 
developed, has ceased to exist. 

Mr. speaker, I ought to apologize for the tedious 
course of investigation into which I have been al- 
most necessarily led, and to thank the house for their 
patient attention. I shall close with a few words, 
which are extorted by the remarks of the gentleman 
from Dorchester. He considers the spirit which ani- 
mates the federalists of this day as totally different 
from that of the whigs of y j6. It is hardly necessa- 
ry to repeat what was said within these walls, with- 
in a few days, and I regret that the gentleman intro- 
duced the subject. But, sir, we must be permitted 
to say, that if the spirit of '76 was that of opposition 
to tyranny, so is that of the present moment. If that 
was a spirit of defiance to foreign tyranny, this is a 
spirit of opposition to domestick usurpation. If 
there be any difference, it is not in kind, but in de- 
gree. If our fathers rose at little more than the the- 
ory of unjust taxation, we have borne the accumu* 
lated evils of a long suspended, I had almost said an- 
nihilated, commerce. They disdained to pay an in- 
considerable tax on stamps and tea, because they de- 



MEMORIAL. 99 

tested the principle of the demands. We have borne 
the incalculable losses of a fourteen months embar- 
go, because we have fondly hoped for relief — because 
the oppression has come from among ourselves, and 
we shudder at the horrours of civil war. The wound 
has been inflicted by men who obtained the confi- 
dence of the people and then betrayed it. No, sir, 
the spirit of our fathers disdained to submit to op- 
pression. But they did not rush madly to the con- 
flict. They petitioned — they remonstrated — they 
implored. Let us then invoke their spirit to inspire 
our councils. Let us fan the pure flame of patrio- 
tism till it inspire us as a people. Let the freemen 
of the north, " in conscious virtue bold," regardless 
of insidious whispers of division and empty threats 
of exasperated power, pursue the cool, decided and 
dignified course which they have commenced — the 
government shall be regenerated — the country is sav- 
ed. 



>€>«3fr®< 



MEMORIAL. 

To the Honourable the Senate and House of Represen- 
tatives of the United States. 



THE MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE OF THE LEGISLA- 
TURE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

WHEN the government of a free people is felt to 
be oppressive on the community; when its measures 
appear to originate in imperfect conceptions of the 
interests of the whole, or inattention to the impor- 
tant concerns of any considerable portion ; a decent 
respect for the opinion of their fellow citizens, and a 

lot a 






100 MEMORIAL. 

just sense of their own rights, require of that part of 
the society which feels oppressed or alarmed, a 
prompt and explicit declaration of their opinions. 
Such a course of proceeding, by producing early and 
frequent publick discussions, is calculated to support 
all such measures as are wise and expedient ; and on 
the other hand, it furnishes a seasonable opportuni- 
ty to the government to abandon all such as are found 
to be impracticable or injurious ; it is calculated at . 
once to silence the murmurs of the people if they are 
unfounded, and to remove all their just causes of 
complaint. 

The citizens of Massachusetts are firm and zealous 
in the vindication of their rights ; but their habits and 
their principles equally forbid a resort to violent, dis- 
orderly or unconstitutional means for that purpose. 
They indulge a pride in the belief that the constitu- 
tions of government under which they live, are 
so framed as to afford a peaceable remedy for every 
grievance to which they may be subjected. They 
have accordingly, by petitions from various parts of 
this state, expressed to the president of the United 
States their sentiments on the oppressive operation 
and destructive tendency of the embargo laid on their 
ships and vessels in December, 1807- This legisla- 
ture also, in the same spirit, have heretofore endea- 
voured, through their senators and representatives, 
to communicate to the government of the United 
States their opinions and views of the system of po- 
licy lately adopted and pursued by the administra- 
tion. They have seen with regret that these peace- 
able and respectful efforts have not produced any re- 
laxation of the rigorous measures complained of ; 
but that, on the contrary, it has been thought proper 
to enforce the embargo by a late act, exceeding in 
severity all that preceded it ; an act which, if conti- 
nued in operation, will, as we apprehend, not only 
complete the destruction of the commercial prospe- 
rity, but prove highly dangerous to the publick li- 
berty and domestick peace of this people. This le- 



MEMORIAL. 101 

gislature have also felt the most serious alarm from 
perceiving the other measures lately proposed and 
contemplated in the Congress of the United States. 
At this awful and momentous crisis we ought not to 
affect ignorance of those events, which on ordinary 
occasions a sense of decorum might forbid our notic- 
ing. It would be a base dereliction of duty, if at 
such a moment as the present, we should permit a 
too scrupulous regard to mere forms to prevent our 
attempting every thing possible for the security of 
our constituents, and for the peace and happiness of 
our common country. This legislature therefore, 
with the plainness and sincerity w 7 hich becomes the 
representatives of a free people, and with all the re- 
spect which is due to the honourable body which 
they address, do present this, their solemn remon- 
strance, against the course of measures which is now 
oppressing this part of the United States. 

Commerce has been one of the chief employments 
of the people of New England from the first settle- 
ment of the country ; and its success has promot- 
ed and abundantly rewarded the labours of agricul- 
ture. This latter, in its turn, has extended and en- 
couraged commerce ; and from the joint operation 
of these causes, New England, without any great 
staple, and without any peculiar local advantages, 
has constantly and rapidty increased in wealth, pros- 
perity and power. If, however, the advantages of 
commerce were less obvious and less important, yet 
the habits of the country, so long and firmly estab- 
lished, could not be suddenly changed, without pro- 
ducing consequences the most distressing and de- 
structive. Our husbandmen and mariners cannot by 
an act of government be converted into manufactur- 
ers ; nor will our merchants and mechanicks ever 
consent to abandon their cities, and retire from the 
sea shore, to clear up and cultivate the wilderness. 
The history of the world has demonstrated that even 
the most despotick governments have hardly ever 
succeeded in changing the habits of a great people ; 



102 MEMORIAL. 

and most certainly in a free country it cannot be at- 
tempted with any prospect of success. The mea- 
sures adopted by the British government, to in- 
terdict or controul our commerce, were among 
the most powerful causes of the revolution. The 
power of establishing commerce, is enumerated, in 
the declaration of our independence, among the es- 
sential rights of sovereignty; and in the articles of 
confederation, trade, religion, and the sovereignty of 
the states, are mentioned as the three principal ob- 
jects which that compact was intended to protect. 
In the present constitution of the United States, 
while the government are intrusted with a greater 
and more adequate power for the protection and ex- 
tension of commerce, the caution and jealousy of the 
people have imposed various restrictions -on that 
power. The government are prohibited from im- 
posing any tax or duty whatsoever on exports, lest 
in virtue of that authority they might in any degree 
embarrass the exportation of our produce. The peo- 
ple have manifested a similar disposition in other ar- 
ticles of the constitution ; and if at the time of fram- 
ing and adopting that instrument, any question had 
arisen as to the extent of the power or the duty of 
the government in this particular; there can be no 
doubt that a clause would have been inserted, most 
explicitly declaring the interests of commerce to be 
one of the principal inducements for forming the 
Union, and its encouragement and defence to be one 
of the first duties of the government ; while the right 
to annihilate or obstruct it would have been explicit- 
ly denied. For a long time after the establishment of 
this government, the fisheries, navigation and trade 
of the country were protected and widely extended. 
They furnished almost the whole revenue of the 
United States, and encouraged universal industry. 
When in the year 1794, the commercial rights of the 
nation were assailed by Great Britain, the immortal 
VYashington, by dignified, fair and impartial negotia- 
tion procured for his country ample compensation 



MEMORIAL. 103 

for past injuries, and security against further aggres- 
sions. In the year 1798, our government, under si- 
milar circumstances, attempted, in the same man- 
ner, to obtain from France indemnity for outrages, 
and a recognition of our rights ; and when fair nego- 
tiation was found to be fruitless, they did not hesi- 
tate immediately to adopt measures of defence, be- 
coming an independent and powerful people. The 
success of these wise and patriotick measures, and 
the universal satisfaction manifested by the people 
in their effects, seemed to haye decided forever the 
true policy of the United States. But in the year 
1806, when our commercial rights were again at- 
tacked by the same nation which had but imperfect- 
ly atoned for her injuries in 1798, and in a manner 
more unwarrantable, insolent and outrageous than 
before, the people expected that the government 
would have recourse to the same policy which had 
formerly been crowned with such signal success. In- 
stead of prompt and vigorous measures of defence, 
they have seen the government retire from the con- 
flict ; and by annihilating their whole foreign com- 
merce, tacitly confess that they are unwilling or una- 
ble to protect it. This apparent inability or indis- 
position to resist aggression, has furnished a pretence 
to another prince to retaliate on his enemy through 
our unprotected rights. Thus the United States are 
placed in a situation, unprecedented it is believed in 
the history of the world, being involved at the same 
moment in serious controversies with two most pow- 
erful nations, who are themselves at war with each 
other. 

The interdiction of foreign commerce for an inde- 
finite period, by perpetual laws, is justly considered 
as a total annihilation of it. The people of this 
country are not accustomed to class among their 
rights, such enjoyments and privileges as depeadon 
the will of any set of men whatever ; under such cir- 
cumstances they would cease to be the rights of a 
free people. Yet it is obvious that the acts laying 



104 MEMORIAL. 

an embargo have suspended their commercial rights ; 
and if those acts are constitutional, these rights can 
never be restored without a concurrent act of all the 
branches of the federal government. The events now 
passing at the seat of government strongly exemplify 
the force of this remark. If one branch of the Legis- 
lature should be unanimously inclined to remove 
the embargo, and even if one other branch should 
concur, yet the President of the United States may 
prevent the passing of an act for such a purpose : and 
if afterwards only twelve members of the Senate 
should adopt his policy and unite in supporting his 
measures, the embargo must remain in force. Most 
certainly the people of this country never intended 
to subject to the discretionary power of thirteen men, 
one of their most essential and invaluable rights. If 
the existence or the apprehension of war would jus- 
tify a temporary embargo, the spirit of the constitu- 
tion would demand that it should be imposed for a 
short and definite period ; so as to require from time 
to time the same concurrence of opinion to continue 
it, which now is required for its removal. 

In the act of Congress passed on the ninth day of 
January last for enforcing the preceding embargo act, 
this Legislature see with extreme pain a perseverance 
in the system, which has proved so injurious to the 
country. But they are still more alarmed from ex- 
amining some of the provisions of this act, which ap- 
pear to them hostile to the dignity and independence 
of this Commonwealth, and subversive of the civil 
liberty and constitutional rights of its citizens. They 
see there, the rights of individuals subjected to the 
arbitrary will of an executive officer, instead of being 
defined and secured by standing laws: secret and 
variable instructions and orders of the President, en- 
titled to equal respect with the laws of the land : an 
indefinite and almost unlimited authority given to the 
officers of the customs, without any warrant from a 
civil magistrate, to search for and seize the property 
of the citizens : excessive sureties required of men 



MEMORIAL, 105 

who are not even charged with any offence ; and ex- 
cessive fines and penalties imposed : individuals ex- 
posed to losses and penalties, tor actions which were 
lawful at the time of committing them : and the be- 
nefits of a trial by jury in too many cases virtually de- 
ed. If any citizen who is aggrieved should apply for 
redress to the laws and judicial courts of the com- 
monwealth, their processes may be impeded, their 
officers resisted, and their authority put at defiance, 
by the standing army of the United States under the 
command of any inferiour officer, empowered by the 
president. Thus whenever a petty officer shall be 
found hardy and adventurous enough to exercise the 
authority conferred by this act, the sovereignty and 
independence of the state will be humbled in the 
dust ; or its government must vindicate by force its 
dignity and its honour, and may be consequently in- 
volved in a civil war. 

This legislature cannot review without the most 
painful emotions the measures of the general govern- 
ment which they have here been considering. They 
cannot, without the most gloomy apprehensions, 
contemplate the probable consequences of a perse- 
verance in those measures. They are constrained 
respectfully, but most unequivocally, to declare 
their conviction that the several laws before referred 
to, which interdict the foreign commerce of the Uni- 
ted States, and which have imposed numerous em- 
barrassments on the coasting trade, must have origi- 
nated in a misconstruction of the federal constitu- 
tion ; that they are contrary to the spirit and inten- 
tion of that instrument : and are not warranted by 
any of the powers therein given by the people to the 
Congress of the United States. In the hope of pre- 
venting any further evil consequences from these 
measures, and with the most ardent desire to pre- 
serve inviolate the constitution of these states, and 
to remove every source of discontent and jealousy 
among the different members of the Union, this le- 
gislature do solemnly remonstrate against the several 
o 



106 MEMORIAL. 

acts of Congress for imposing and enforcing the em- 
bargo ; and do earnestly request your honourable bo- 
dy to take the same into your most serious conside- 
ration, and by repealing them to restore this people 
to their former enviable state of freedom, prosperity 
and happiness. 

It is impossible to contemplate the repeal of the 
several acts relating to the embargo, without consi- 
dering the various substitutes for this measure which 
have been proposed, and which are now before the 
publick. This legislature feel bound to express the 
strong and decided opinion they entertain on this 
subject, before any of these proposed measures shall 
be adopted. The expression of this opinion is re- 
quired by a just sense of their own rights, and those 
of the state which they represent ; and also by a due 
regard to the sentiments and feelings of their consti- 
tuents, which are well known to the individuals of 
this legislature, and which are so strongly displayed 
in the numerous petitions and memorials daily arriv- 
ing from all parts of the commonwealth. 

The prohibition of all intercourse with France and 
Great Britain and their respective dependencies, 
would probably prove fruitless and inefficient, from 
from the extreme difficulty of enforcing its observ- 
ance ; and would thus serve to bring into contempt 
the laws and government of the country; or if en- 
forced it would impose embarrassments on commerce 
nearly as fatal as the obstructions created by the 
present embargo. It would soon become a restric- 
tion only on the orderly and well disposed part of the 
community ; and would furnish opportunities and 
inducements to the officers of government, by occa- 
sional indulgence and connivance, to promote the 
interests of their personal or political friends. But 
in another view of this measure it appears still more 
serious and alarming. It is obvious that if the em- 
bargo was removed, our citizens would have but lit- 
tle intercourse with France or her dependencies. The 
total disregard of the laws of nations, and the obliga- 



MEMORIAL. 10? 

lion of treaties, manifested by that government ;— 
the seizure and detention of neutral property in all 
parts of her dominions ; — the unprecedented decrees 
against neutral commerce promulgated at Berlin, at 
Milan and at Bayonne, would deter our citizens 
from adventuring in commercewith her subjects. The 
proposed non-intercourse therefore would in effect ap- 
ply solely to Great Britain. The natural tendency of 
this measure, which is undoubtedly foreseen if not 
intended by some of its advocates, would be to in- 
volve the nation in war with Great Britain, a mea- 
sure which would necessarily produce a fatal alliance 
with France. 

The project of arming our merchantmen to resist 
seizures by either of the belligerents, appears to ma- 
nifest a spirit, which when excited in a just cause 
will always be warmly approved and vigorously sup- 
ported by the people of Massachusetts. They can- 
not cease to lament, that some portion of this spirit 
had not been exhibited m resisting the first outrage 
on our rights by the Berlin decree of November 1806, 
If our government had at that time expressed a strong 
sense of this outrage on the nation, and a firm reso- 
lution to vindicate and maintain its rights, they 
would have been most cordially and zealously sup- 
ported by men of all political parties. This project, 
if adopted now without limitation, however it may 
be intended by those who propose it, would speedily 
and inevitably lead to a war with Great Britain. 
France has comparatively few cruisers on the ocean, 
which is covered by the ships of her enemy. Our 
vessels would be seldom encountered by those of the 
former power, while hardly one would escape those 
of the latter. Ail our actual collisions would neces- 
sarily be with Great Britain, who would thus be made 
to appear to be the only aggressor; and when the 
publick sensibility was excited by these causes, the 
dictates of reason, of justice and sound policy would 
cease to be regarded. It cannot be too often repeat- 
ed, that such a war would necessarily involve a de- 
structive alliance with France ; an alliance which 



108 



MEMORIAL. 



experience has shewn to be more fatal than any war, 
and which is universally dreaded throughout this 
part of the United States, as highly dangerous to the 
independence of the nation, and hostile to the liber- 
ties of the world. 

The legislature of Massachusetts express without 
reserve their sentiments on the conduct of the two 
belligerent powers of Europe. They cannot be re- 
strained by the audacious and unfounded insinuation, 
that the people of New England are influenced by 
undue partiality to either of those powers. They re- 
pel with indignation this slanderous aspersion, which 
cannot be believed even by those who propagate it. 
It is refuted by the well known spirit and patriotism 
of this people; it is disproved by the annals of our 
revolutionary war, and by our whole history to the 
present day. This state was among the first to resist 
the encroachments of the British government at that 
time ; her citizens still retain the same spirit to op- 
pose unjust aggressions, from whatever quarter they 
may be attempted. While they cultivate this spirit, 
the pledge of their liberties and their independence ; 
they cherish also those moral habits and religious 
principles, which distinguished their ancestors, the 
first settlers of this countrv. While vindicating their 
own rights, they are admonished candidly to exam- 
ine, and religiously to respect, the rights of others. 
They can never cordially engage in any contest which 
does not appear to them necessary to the honour and 
the essential interests of their country ; nor can they 
appeal with confidence to the God of armies in a war 
which does not appear to them to he just. 

With these impressions the legislature of Massa- 
chusetts have deliberately examined the several do- 
cuments respecting the foreign relations of the Unit- 
ed States which were published'by Congress for the 
information of the people. They have impartially 
weighed and considered the dates, and the contents, 
of the Maritime decrees and orders of France and 
Great Britain, aflecting the commerce of the United 



MEMORIAL. 109 

States, and the dispositions of those two governments 
as manifested in their correspondence with our pub- 
lick ministers. The numerous and repeated aggres- 
sions on the part of France, displayed in these docu- 
ments, are as injurious to the honour of the nation 
as to the interests of the citizens ; violating at once 
the sacred obligations of our treaty with that govern- 
ment, and the established principles of the law of 
nations. The remonstrances and complaints of our 
minister appear to have been treated with contemptu- 
ous silence, or answered only with new outrages; 
and he seems at last to have abandoned all hope and 
expectation of influencing that government by diplo- 
matick representations ; and to have left it to the wis- 
dom and the spirit of the United States to adopt such 
other measures as may be necessary to cause their 
rights to be respected. While France shall maintain 
this contemptuous indifference, and these hostile im- 
positions, it appears hardly possible to attempt any 
accommodation with her, which shall not tarnish the 
honour, and endanger the independence of our coun- 
try. 

On the part of Great Britain, there appears from 
those documents to be a disposition to cultivate a 
good understanding with this country. They have 
manifested a strong desire to make atonement and 
. compensation for injuries that were even unauthoriz- 
ed, and unintentional; and to adjust the respective 
rights and claims of the two nations on such a basis 
vg as shall prevent future collisions. If these diposi- 
:| tions on her part are sincere, and we do not see in 
i, these documents, any reason to question their sin- 
cerity, they should undoubtedly be met by a corres- 
pondent disposition on our part. They certainly fur- 
nish an opportunity to attempt a negotiation without 
any sacrifice of honourable sentiment or independent 
feelings ; and this legislature have great confidence, 
that such a negotiation, conducted in a fair, impar- 
tial and candid manner, would speedily restore har- 
mony between the two countries. In considering 



110 ADDRESS- 

the different decrees and orders of France and Great 
Britain, it is obvious that those of the former have 
been uniformly first in orderof time, and most injuri- 
ous in their nature. But even if those nations were, 
as has been sometimes asserted, on the most perfect 
equality in this respect, and if the conduct of each 
furnish such a cause of war as would leave only the 
choice of our adversary, every motive of policy would 
induce the United States to select France for her ene- 
my. Without condescending to calculate with pre- 
cision the comparative ability of those two nations to 
injure and annoy this county, the present state of 
the world should decide our choice. In one event, 
we should have the satisfaction of aiding in that glo- 
rious struggle now carried on in Europe against the 
tyranny of France ; and of assisting to maintain the 
cause of that brave and gallant nation which has late- 
ly thrown off the yoke of her oppressor ; and which 
was among the first to promote our exertions in alike 
cause. In the other case, we should immediately be 
arrayed on the side of France ; we should necessarily 
aid the gigantick strides of her emperour towards uni- 
versal domination, and assist in annihilating the in- 
dependence of nations, and the freedom of the world. 



><&&&< 



ADDRESS 

Of the Legislature to the People of the Commonwealth 
of Massachusetts. 

Fellow Citizens, 

THE legislature of Massachusetts have found them- 
selves impelled by the existing crisis, and by the im- 
portunity of a large portion of their constituents, to 



ADD&ESS. HJ 

depart from the sphere of their ordinary duties, and 
to bestow their serious consideration upon subjects 
which belong to the constitutional jurisdiction of the 
national government. In this course, which they 
have, with great reluctance, thought necessary to 
adopt, they have not been unmindful of the rights 
and powers of that government, nor of the dangers 
incident to an habitual interference of the state legis- 
latures in the great concerns of the nation. They 
are deeply impressed with the importance of support- 
ing that government as the bond of an union, which 
experience has shewn to be capable of producing the 
highest measure of national felicity. They are aware 
of the embarrassment which may be created in times 
of peculiar publick excitement, by unreasonable ex- 
pressions of discontent by individual states. And 
they readily concede, that a government depending 
upon the confidence of the people, to be enabled to 
do right, must have the power sometimes to do 
wrong ; and that a sincere approbation of wise mea- 
sures, should be accompanied by a magnanimous in- 
dulgence for the errours which are incident to human 
nature. When the national administration ceases to 
posses^ the confidence of the people, it will lose con- 
fidence in itself; and from the want of this, will al- 
ways follow a deficiency of energy and stability in- 
dispensable to its success. 

A system of measures, especially respecting nego- 
tiations with foreign nations, must not be assailed by 
the rash and petulant opposition of a particular state, 
before its object and bearings are discovered. If a 
legislature, yielding its dignity to the suggestions of 
impatience and discontent, proceeding from partial 
and interested sources, will undertake to decide up- 
on questions exclusively of national cognizance, dis- 
turbance and confusion must ensue, both in the ge- 
neral and state governments ; and such conflicts, 
when they become frequent, can terminate only in a 
dissolution of the Union. 

It is with a solemn apprehension and dread of this 



112 ADDRESS. 

deplorable event, and with a most anxious solicitude 
to avoid any precedent which may, however remote- 
ly, tend to produce it, that the legislature of Massa- 
chusetts have been influenced in all their delibera- 
tions. The caution and forbearance which are na- 
turally imposed by these considerations, would have 
restrained them under circumstances noi absolutely 
imperious, from expressing their opinion upon the 
measures of our national rulers. — They would have 
endured great sacrifices of interest ; they would have 
acquisced in great violence to their own views of na- 
tional policy ; they would have concealed their fears 
and suppressed their indignation, if the calamity in 
which the country is wantonly involved did not 
threaten absolute ruin in its consequences, and for- 
bid delay in the expression of their feelings. But 
they have been compelled to inquire for themselves. 
What can be done, when the whole community 
which they represent deems itself oppressed, and its 
local and permanent interests forever endangered ; 
when the administration through pride of system, 
from misapprehension of the interests of the country, 
or under the influence of a hostile disposition to- 
wards one nation, or undue partiality to another, a- 
dopts and deliberately adheres to an infatuated poli- 
cy, which arrests all the occupations and disturbs all 
the relations of society, and by sapping the founda- 
tions of individual prosperity, drives a whole people 
to despair ? 

In this extremity the legislature has endeavoured 
to conform to unexpected circumstances, and to the 
claims of their constituents upon their affections and 
duty. Endeavouring to divest themselves of passions 
and prejudices; protesting in the sight of God the 
sincereity of their attachment to the union of the 
states, and their determination to cherish and pre- 
serve it at every hazard, until it shall fail to secure 
to them those blessings which alone give value to 
any form of government ; and, confident that under 
a wise adminstration it will always be adequate to 



ADDRESS. 113 

this object ; they have arraigned the measures of our 
national rulers, not with a spirit of anisrnosity, or a 
desire to expose them to obloquy and disgrace, but 
with a single view to stop their career in a course of 
measures to which it is physically as well as morally 
impossible for the people of this commonwealth much 
longer to submit. The most important results of le« 
gislative deliberation upon these subjects will ap- 
pear in two reports of a committee of the House of 
Representatives, in another report of a joint commit- 
tee, and in a remonstrance to Congress ; all of which 
are laid before the publick. A candid examination 
of these documents will probably satisfy our consti- 
tuents that less could not be done consistently with 
the claims of our fellow citizens, nor more without 
authorizing a forcible resistance to acts of Congress, 
an ultimate resource, so deeply to be deprecated^ 
that the cases which might justify it should not be 
trusted even to the imagination, until they actually 
happen. 

While the legislature insist upon their right, in 
common with all other lawful assemblies of their fel- 
low citizens, to express their opinion of publick 
measures, and feel it to be their peculiar duty, as the 
immediate guardians of the rights of their constitu- 
ents, to warn them of all unconstitutional acts and 
usurpations of the national government ; and while 
they, at the same time, readily acknowledge the ex-< 
pediency of exercising this right ought to be restrict-* 
ed to cases of great national emergency, it is but jus- 
tice to themselves to demonstrate that the present 
state of this commonwealth is within this obvious 
exception. 

The towns which have already presented petitions 
to the legislature in their corporate capacity, include 
nearly one third part of the taxable property of the 
commonwealth, and many of them are towns which, 
at the commencement of the political year, were the 
supporters of the present administration, and are now 
represented by its friends. To this number must be 



114) ADDRESS. 

added those who have not petitioned, but whose 
representatives, with a full knowledge of the wishes 
of their constituents, have concurred in the measures 
of the legislature ; and the minorities in other towns 
which still adhere to the administration. Thus it is 
certain that an immense majority of the people of 
Massachusetts may be considered as before the legis- 
ture, describing the miseries and grievances of their 
situation, and requiring their interposition to obtain 
relief. 

The language of the petitions from various quar- 
ters, and from all classes of the people, exhibits an 
atfecting picture of the publick distress. The mer- 
chant on the sea coast has abandoned his enterprizes, 
and the trader in the country has lost his customers, 
his debts and his credits. The ship owner beholds 
the silent and certain ruin of property, sufficient to 
carry on the principal trade of the world. The 
work shop of the mechanick is deserted, and the ship 
builder is without employment. The produce of the 
farmer has fallen in value; while all the articles for 
which he depends on foreign nations, have risen to a 
price which places them beyond his reach ; and this 
misfortune will now be aggravated by an unprece- 
dented addition of duties. The creditor from neces- 
sity presses on his debtor, and the debtor beholds his 
property sacrificed at half its value. 

All these accumulated evils have been more parti- 
cularly felt in the eastern part of the commonwealth, 
where by the annihilation of foreign commerce, and 
the oppressive restriction on the coasting trade, a 
hardy people, who enjoyed competence and looked 
forward to affluence, have been involved in the deep- 
est and most aggravating distress, while their lumber 
is left to rot on the banks of their rivers. 

These existing evils are greatly aggravated by a 
prospect of the future. The habits of the world 
change and conform to circumstances. The nations 
that have hitherto been dependent on us for any por- 
tion of the necessaries of life, have learned that no 



ADDRESS. 115 

dependence can be placed on supplies from a people 
whose experiments or prejudices may at any moment 
make them their victims. They have learned a se- 
cret highly injurious to us, that our commerce is not; 
essential to theii permanent welfare, and that nature 
has furnished them with advantages which will ena- 
ble them to dispense with all such of our exports as 
they have hitherto considered of the first necessity. 
Hence, if this system is longer continued, when the 
liberty of the sea shall at last be restored to us, we 
shall find ourselves mere vagrants on the ocean, and 
excluded from ports of whose commerce we once en- 
joyed the monopoly. The old channels of trade will 
be crowded with the ships of other nations : foreign 
marts willl be supplied by the produce of their own 
fields and fisheries, and foreigners will be their own 
carriers. Even France, grown desperate by the ne- 
cessity which her own tyrant imposes on her, feeds 
her own colonies and receives their produce in their 
own ships. But if trade should unexpectedly be 
open to us, and excite our enterprize, the whole ma- 
chinery of commerce is so disordered, that years can- 
not restore it to its former activity. Old relations 
and connexions have been dissolved, and are to be 
renewed. The credit of our merchants abroad is to 
be re-established, and the main spring of navigation 
to be restored. Our mariners have been driven by 
want and distress into foreign service, and are now 
fighting the battles of other nations, to escape, per- 
haps in an honourable death, the inglorious servility 
and humiliating dependence of helpless poverty. All 
these evils are aggravated by the consideration that 
they have been but useless sacrifices to a ruinous ex- 
periment, and that they are the result of measures 
as unavailing in their effect upon foreign nations, as 
unequal in their operation on our own country. 

Such is the faint outline of the situation of this 
people, as described by themselves in their various 
petitions. It is the more painful, as it comes into 
contrast with the unparalleled prosperity which im~ 



116 ADDRESS. 

mediately preceded it under former administrations, 
and which an observance of their policy would still 
have insured to our country. 

The suspension of commerce, although the imme- 
diate cause of publick distress, is also to be regarded 
as the effect of a departure from the system of Wash- 
ington, and of hostility to those who pursued his po- 
liticks and enjoyed his confidence. 

The limits of this address will not permit a minute 
examination of the principles of the first administra- 
tions, nor of a detailed comparison of them with those 
of the present. It is, however, undeniable, that the 
period of the two former administrations was the 
golden age of America ; and such was the impulse 
given to the publick prosperity, that it continued to 
influence the first period of the present administra- 
tion, notwithstanding the errours and deviations 
which were destined by a slow operation to reduce 
the nation to its present state. Yet it has not been 
perceived, that our present rulers have been called 
upon to encounter greater difficulties and embarrass- 
ments, arising from the state of the w 7 orld, than 
those by which their predecessors were encompassed. 
France violated our commercial rights, insulted our 
government, and availed herself of every art and in- 
trigue to entangle us in an alliance with her ; but we 
escaped, and preserved our peace, our commerce, 
and our honour. The spoliations of Great Britain on 
Our commerce, excited resentment in the publick 
mind, and demanded redress, which was obtained by 
negotiation, and our useful and lucrative connexion 
with that country was still maintained. 

Whatever are the motives that may be presumed 
recently to influence the conduct of those respective 
nations towards the United States : it is probable 
they were then of the same character and description 
as at present. The sympathy of the people in the 
French revolution was general and ardent ; their ir- 
ritation against Great Britain, feverish and violent ; 
yet under the pressure of these external circumstan- 



ADDRESS. 117 

stances, combined with rebellion in the heart of the 
country, without the benefit of example to guide, or 
experience to confirm its measures, the new govern- 
ment was enabled to preserve peace at home, and 
with half its present resources, to prepare for war, 
and command respect abroad. 

By what fatality has it then happened, that the 
prosperity of our country has experienced this fatal 
reverse ? 

A full and satisfactory reply to this inquiry would 
lead to a review of the whole history of our govern- 
ment, from its commencement to the present time, 
and is therefore not to be expected in a brief address. 
But a respectful attention to the complaints of the 
people requires that the principal causes should be at 
least suggested. 

The first of them is to be found in the love of pow- 
er and the pride of system, which, united to the spi- 
rit of party, have been exerted to secure to one por- 
tion of the Union a controuling influence over the 
other. The people of the United States may be 
classed under three general descriptions ; the agri- 
cultural, the planting, and the mercantile interests. 
The first includes the farmers of those states who 
cultivate their own lands by the hands of freemen. 
The second comprises the planters of the southern 
states, who cultivate their lands by slaves. Theiast 
may be considered as including the merchants, sea- 
men, mechanicks, manufacturers and all who are con- 
nected with or dependent upon trade and commerce. 
The interests of these three classes are naturally fa- 
vourable to each other, and may be easily so combin- 
ed by a wise government as to be instrumental in 
promoting the prosperity of all, and the greatest at- 
tainable degree of national strength ; or they may be 
so severed by a weak and partial administration as to 
render each a prey to jealousies, strife, and unnatu- 
ral competitions, which will be equally ruinous to 
all. 

The mercantile class are the principal proprietors 



118 ADDRESS. 

of the active capital of the country, and their welfare 
is inseparable from the success of commerce and na- 
vigation. 

This class is proportionally the most numerous in 
the eastern states. And in these states, considering 
them as one section of the country, the interests of 
the farmer and merchant are, from usage and antitnt 
relation, as well as from the nature of things, so blend- 
ed and connected, that the one has scarcely less ad- 
vantage from the success of commerce and naviga- 
tion than the other. This cannot be affirmed with 
the same precision in regard to the planting interest. 
To this class commerce is also essential, but it is of 
less importance whether their commerce be carried 
on by the navigation of th.eir own, or of a foreign 
country. A small proportion only of ships and ves- 
sels is owned by their merchants. On the contrary, 
an immense portion of the wealth of the eastern sec- 
tion of the Union consists in shipping. For exam- 
ple, in the year 1805, the aggregate tonnage of the 
United States was eleven hundred and forty thou- 
sand three hundred and sixty-eight tons : of which 
Massachusetts owned four hundred and twenty-five 
thousand nine hundred and forty eight tons, includ- 
ing upwards of one fourth of the whole coasting ves- 
sels, more than one third of the whalemen, and near- 
ly six sevenths of the cod fishermen. No nation has 
ever prosecuted a successful navigation without the 
protection of a naval force ; but as such a force 
*wouid naturally augment the strength and wealth of 
that part of the Union in which it should be built 
and manned, it would be an easy task to inspire the 
planting interest with a jealousy of such an estab- 
lishment, and to inculcate upon them a belief in the 
plausible, though fallacious, theory, that commerce, 
like agriculture, must protect itself. This jealousy, 
once excited, is naturally ripened into hostility, and 
extended to those men and states that are principal- 
ly concerned in commerce. The farmer who lives in 
a commercial state becomes at first the dupe of these 



ADDRESS* 119 

prejudices, and deceived by the similarity of names, 
believes his interest to be the same with the planter's, 
and lends his aid to weaken the commercial system. 
Thus the planting interest, obtaining an ascendancy 
throughout the Union, is enabled to aggrandize it- 
self, and give laws to the nation. 

The great Washington, considering himself the fa- 
ther of the whole people, was incapable of giving 
countenance to the jealousies arising from these 
causes. He was the avowed friend of commerce, 
and the advocate for its protection by means of a 
navy. 

For the sake of commerce, he concluded a treaty 
with Great Britain, amid the clamours of opposition. 
He patronized banks and monied institutions, as in- 
dispensable to the general welfare ; and felt that the 
interest of each class and the power and wealth of 
each state were for the benefit of all. His successor 
adopted his system, and urged, to the utmost of his 
power, the provision for a naval establishment. 

Far different has been the policy of the present ad- 
ministration. Under it we have seen the spirit of 
party and of hostility to the interests of navigation, 
burn with redoubled ardour, and all attempts to pro- 
tect them abandoned. The navy has been permit- 
ted to go to decay, and the commercial treaty with 
England to expire. The New England farmer has 
been wheedled into a belief that he has no greater 
interest in the success of navigation than a Virginian 
planter. The doctrine has been propagated, that the 
commerce which cannot protect itself is unworthy of 
protection ; that in time of peace, when no danger 
exists, it must be used as a source of revenue ; but in 
time of war it must be abandoned, and those engag- 
ed in it must betake themselves to other pursuits ; 
and, finally, that it is not an object of protection, but 
an instrument of coercion. 

Ostentatious displays of the payment of the pub- 
lick debt have created a delusive popularity, Which 
has led the administration to presume upon their 



120 ADDRESS. 

power to coerce the commercial states at their will 
and pleasure. They have proscribed and displaced 
all who have dared to give them true information, 
and thus shut up the avenues to a just estimate of 
the interests and feelings of this people. They have 
been deceived by men who were themselves either 
ignorant or deceived, and they have arrayed the peo- 
ple against each other in an attitude highly disho- 
nourable to the nation, and menacing consequences 
at which every patriot citizen must tremble. 

Another capital defect in the present system, will 
be found in the total omission to estimate properly 
tiie danger and state of our foreign relations. 

There has been no period since the French revolu- 
tion, that has not been pregnant with danger to the 
peace of this nation. Our collisions with the belli- 
gerent powers have been incessant ; and we have 
been in several years repeatedly on the eve of a war 
with Spain. During the whole term of Mr. Jeffer- 
son's administration, the revenue from commerce, 
owing to the immense capital that had beenaccumu- 
mulated under the auspices of his predecessors, was 
yearly augmented ; yet the appropriations for nation- 
al defence have been truly contemptible. 

Our harbours have been constantly exposed to the 
smallest naval armament. No establishments have 
been made for naval or military instruction; no seri- 
ous preparations for a state of war. Every impor- 
tant object has been sacrificed to the pretence of di- 
minishing the publick debt; the merit of which is 
hardly a theme for exultation, when it is considered 
that the whole amount of the reduction of the debt, 
since Mr. Jefferson's administration, is not equal to 
the additional revenue for the same time, beyond that 
of the preceding administrations. This false econo- 
my and unwarlike attitude has probably conduced 
to degrade us in the estimation of Europe, and ex- 
pose us to outrage and insult. 

Another and principal cause of our difficulties may 
be found in the conduct of the administration to- 



ADDRESS. 121 

wards Great Britain and France. It is certainly the 
misfortune of the party in power, that their profes- 
sions of strict impartiality towards the belligerent na- 
tions have been accompanied by language and con- 
duct which have prevented their beiug accredited. 

That a party existed in this country prior to the 
conclusion of the late war, which, either from a sense 
of gratitude or dependence, was disposed to over va- 
lue the part taken by France in our revolution, is 
not to be denied. It is equally certain, that the pre- 
sent leading members of the ruling party were repu- 
ted to be the firm, confidential friends of the French 
ministry, and advocates of their policy. It has also 
uniformly been stated, that these gentlemen, or their 
friends, at the close of the revolutionary war, did in- 
sist on Congress, conformably to the wishes and sug- 
gestions of the French cabinet, that neither the ex- 
press acknowledgement of our independence by Great 
Britain, nor our right to the fisheries, nor the posses- 
sion of the western country, and the free navigation 
of the Missisippi, should be indispensable conditions 
in the proposed treaty of peace. 

It has also been uniformly stated, without contra- 
diction, that these same persons were of the party 
which procured instructions to be given to our mi- 
nister appointed to negotiate the treaty of peace, to 
act only with the consent and concurrence of the 
French cabinet in every article of ihe treaty; and 
that when our ministers, Adams and Jay, in spite of 
the perfidious intrigues of Vergennes, obtained fronx 
Great Britain the recognition of our independence, 
secured to us the fisheries which France demanded 
for herself, preserved a right to the navigation of the 
Missisippi, and obtained a clear title to the western 
country, this same party endeavoured in Congress to 
procure a vote of censure against our ministers for 
this exertion of patriotism and independence. 

In the year 1 794-, this same party, under pretence 
of securing our rights, proposed a series of resolu- 
tions in Congress, founded on their favourite policy 
Q 



122 ADDRESS. 

of coercing Britain by our commercial warfare, but 
which at that period would have inevitably involved 
us in a war with her, and in consequence an alliance 
with France, that would have made us a party in all 
the wars in which she has been engaged, and sharers 
in the fate which has befallen all her allies. 

The same party opposed the mission of Mr. Jay to 
England, and violently condemned the treaty con- 
cluded by that minister, which has so greatly con- 
duced to the unparalleled prosperity of this country. 
And during the whole of the time that the American 
people were agitated by the first events of the French 
revolution, and the cabals of the French ministers, 
they were regarded by those ministers as friendly to 
France, and charged with having a language official 
and a language confidential. 

At a subsequent period, the same party in the as- 
sembly of Virginia, and other legislative bodies, as 
well as in Congress, opposed all defensive measures 
against France, whose indiscriminate robberies threat- 
ened the extermination of our commerce, and whose 
indignities and outrages towards our publick minis- 
ters had awakened a sentiment of indignation in all 
impartial minds. 

The same party have permitted the British treaty 
to expire without attempting to renew it, and have 
rejected another treaty, framed by their own confi- 
dential ministers, which contained a substantial secu- 
rity for our claims to the rights of neutrals, and re- 
fused their assent to arrangements which would have 
obviated the inconveniences and injuries sustained 
by the impressment of our seamen. 

The same party have refused to accept reparation 
from Great Britain for the outrage committed on the 
Chesapeake, for reasons of mere punctilio, and thus 
have preserved unnecessarily this ground of national 
animosity, and have finally adopted the ruinous sys- 
tem of embargo, which is in substance the same that 
has been required by the French emperour of his vas- 
sal nations, and has received his explicit approbation 
in official communications to his senate. 



ADDRESS. 123 

If these facts and circumstances were not sufficient 
to establish the conclusion, that the administration 
have uniformly inclined to the views and policy of 
France ; their measures and their language, subse- 
quent to the late obnoxious decrees and orders of 
both belligerents, must remove ail doubt upon this 
subject. 

The legislature cannot now attempt an elaborate 
examination of the documents relative to the nego- 
tiation with these powers, which have been submit- 
ted to publiek inspection ; nor is it necessary to re- 
peat the inferences, which will be found in the re- 
ports and memorial which they have adopted. 

Let it be conceded, to avoid argument, that the 
administration have exerted ail their skill and power 
in sincere efforts to preserve our neutrality, but that 
the mutual injustice of France and Great Britain has 
at length compelled them to withdraw into a retire- 
ment, in which they mean not to remain, and whence 
they cannot emerge without becoming a party in the 
war; what is the obvious policy, in the prospect and 
in the event of such an alternative, which might 
have been expected, and ought to have been fore- 
seen ? Should they consume months and years in 
piteous moans at a fate too common to neutral na- 
tions, or in active preparations to meet it? Should 
they content themselves with invectives and com- 
plaints and menaces against both belligerents, or pre- 
pare magazines and fleets and armies to encounter 
one of them ? 

That a nation sincerely desirous of neutrality, 
should be forced into a war, is an event always to be 
deplored, but frequently to be expected. Under this 
misfortune it is a consolation to have the power of 
choosing the least formidable enemy, and a duty to 
make such an election. The situation of the United 
States and of the world should preclude ail hesita- 
tion upon their policy, when circumstances shall 
compel them to an ultimate decision. 

That a war with Great Britain would lead t,o an a!- 



124? ADDRESS. 

liance with France, is beyond dispute ; and that this 
connexion must be forever fatal to the liberty and in- 
dependence of the nation, is obvious to all who are 
not blinded by partiality and passion. This conside- 
ration should be decisive with an American cabinet, 
admitting all our complaints of British violence and 
injuries, to be perfectly just. But to judge from the 
measures and language of the partizans of administra- 
tion, the reverse of this policy is contemplated, if 
war becomes unavoidable. The whole system of com- 
mercial restrictions now, without its original disguise, 
is intended against Great Britain. The warlike mea- 
sures contemplated and proposed, though not yet 
adopted, are coupled with menaces against the Bri- 
tish colonies and commerce. 

The halls of Congress and other places in which 
the administration preserves a majority, resound with 
the fulminations of rage, and reproach, and revenge 
against Great Britain and her government, amid which 
the faint murmurs and occasional exclamations against 
French unkindness are lost almost before they reach 
the ear. 

Of the motives to this conduct on the part of the 
national government, this legislature can discern no 
satisfactory solution, but in an habitual and impoli- 
tick predilection for France. Without pretending to 
compare and adjust the respective injuries sustained 
from the two nations, it cannot be disguised, that in 
some instances our nation has received from Great 
Britain compensation, in others, offers of atonement, 
and in all the language of conciliation and respect ; 
while from France, our immense losses are without 
retribution, and our remonstrances are neglected with 
contemptuous silence, or answered with aggravating 
insult. While hostility with Great Britain would ex- 
pose our country and our commerce in every vulnera- 
ble point, and afford no hope of honour or indemnity, 
a war with France would not be very different from 
the only state of peace which she is disposed to main- 
tain, 



ADDRESS. 125 

Under these circumstances, can it be contended 
that the policy is either just or wise, which would 
dictate either open hostility against Great Britain, or 
a series of irritating measures tending to that stale ? 

Thus, fellow-citizens, has the legislature reluctant- 
ly presented you with a general view of the causes 
which have reduced you to your present calamitous 
state. But these would have been insufficient, if 
you, and the people of those states whose interests 
are similar to yours, had remained vigilant for the 
common welfare. 

The present leading men in the southern states, 
have beheld with jealousy, your increasing prosperi- 
ty, and feel neither respect for your pursuits, nor 
sensibility for your sufferings ; yet it can hardly be 
supposed, that they would willingly drive to extre- 
mities a section of the country which they believed 
to be a united people, who still regard them with fra- 
ternal feelings, who claim only a fair attention to their 
local habits and necessities, and who are willing, in 
any just or necessary cause, to devote their lives and 
their fortunes to the common defence. They have 
been deceived. The spirit of proscription, originat- 
ing with the present administration, has almost whol- 
ly driven from the national councils that description 
of men who are the natural representatives of your 
true interests. Their places have been supplied by 
those who were disposed to flatter the ruling party, 
and promote their measures and policy. The same 
spirit of political persecution was introduced into the 
state governments, and at length in this state openly 
avowed and displayed, in a written treatise, by the 
present chief magistrate. The novel doctrine of ex- 
cluding from power and office all who differed in any 
article of -political faith from the great head of the 
nation, soon became current. The people were daz- 
zled with the delusive glitter of a 'full treasury, and 
deafened by clamours excited against those who first 
provided the means of filling it. Their confidence 
was withdrawn from their old and tried friends ; and 



126 ADDRESS. 

the politicians of the south were encouraged to hope, 
by your own representatives, that if your unanimity 
did not ensure the popularity of their measures, your 
divisions would prevent their defeat. Thence their 
apparent union and enthusiasm in favour of a system 
which appears to you little short of infatuation. 
Hence their belief that you will acquiesce in a sacri- 
fice of your vital interests, without a perception of 
necessity, and plunge into war with a certainty of 
ruin. 

If for those evils it was in the power of the le- 
gislature to devise any temporary remedy, you are 
sensible that a concurrence from the present execu- 
tive magistrate of the commonwealth could not be 
expected. But as the malady is deep, you will still 
be deceived by trusting to any momentary relief. 
You must realize and comprehend the nature of your 
peculiar interests, and by steady, persevering and 
well-concerted efforts, rise into an attitude to pro- 
mote and preserve them. The farmer must remem- 
ber that his prosperity is inseparable from that of the 
merchant, and that there is little affinity between 
his condition and habits and those of a southern 
planter. The interests of New-England must be 
defined, undersood, and firmly represented. A per- 
fect intelligence must be cultivated among those 
states, and a united effort must be made and contin- 
ued, to acquire their just influence in the national 
government. For this purpose the constitution 
should be amended, and the provision which gives 
to holders of slaves a representation equal to that of 
600,000 free citizens, should be abolished. Experi- 
ence proves the injustice, and time will increase the 
inequality of this principle, the original reason for 
which has entirely failed. 

Other amendments to secure commerce and navi- 
gation from a repetition of destrutive and insidious 
theories, are indispensable. 

Towards effecting these salutary reforms, or any 
other which experience may prove to be fair and ne- 



AB&KESS, 127 

cessary for the prosperity of the commercial states, 
the restoration of full and entire confidence to those 
who feel their necessity, and are anxious to promote 
them, is the first dictate of wisdom. The legisla- 
ture are aware that their measures and sentiments 
will encourage their opponents in propagating the 
foul imputation of a design to dismember the Union. 
But when did party malice want a theme to excite 
popular prejudice? When did it have recourse to 
one more absurd and unfounded ? Why should those 
by whose instrumentality the confederacy was form- 
ed, be bent on the destruction of their own work ? 
Why should the disciples of Washington forget the 
maxims of his government, and the precepts of his 
school ? If the dissolution of the Union would be 
an evil, have the objects of this calumny less at 
stake than its authors ? Those men and their adher- 
ents, who now point out the defects which experi- 
ence has displayed in the present policy and consti- 
tution, are those who invited the publick attention 
to the deficiency of the old confederation. It was 
at that time their object to strengthen the Union ; it 
is not less their object at this time. But as the Uni- 
on itself originated in a spirit of compromise, the 
administration of the government should be influenc- 
ed by the same spirit. If the southern states are 
disposed to avail themselves of the advantages re- 
sulting from our strength and resources for common 
defence, they must be willing to patronize the inter- 
ests of navigation and commerce, without which 
our strength will be weakness. If they wish to ap- 
propriate a portion of the publick revenue towards 
roads, canals, or for the purchase of arms and the 
improvement of their militia, they must consent 
that you, who purchase your own arms, and have al- 
ready roads, canals and militia, in most excellent or- 
der, shall have another portion of it devoted to a 
naval protection. If they, in the spirit of chivalry, 
are ready to rush into an unnecessary and ruinous 
war with one nation^ they must suffer you to pause 



12S ADDRESS 

before you bid an eternal adieu to your independence 
by an alliance with another. 

There is not a greater diversity of interests be- 
tween them ana yourselves than will be found in the 
distant provinces of all great empires ; none, indeed, 
that a truly national administration cannot reconcile. 
It is believed too, that many of your southern bre- 
thren accord with you in their estimate of the true 
interests of their country, and are inclined magna- 
nimously to sacrifice local prejudices to national safe- 
ty and honour. This happy result may be expected, 
when New-England, faithful to her true interests, 
shall speak with one voice, and exclude from her 
councils those who from misapprehension of those in- 
terests, or any other cause, are advocates for the pre- 
sent destructive system. Then, and not till that 
time, will a temper of mutual accommodation begin 
to display itself in the measures of government, and 
a steady, dignified conduct shield the nation from 
foreign and domestick dangers. The Congress of the 
United States will no longer be the theatre of base 
contention and sanguinary threats. The spirit of 
private combat will no longer be the test of publick 
spirit, and the denunciations of vanity and inexper- 
ience will cease to be vented against powerful mem- 
bers of the common Union. 

It would indeed be a grateful occupation to the le- 
gislature to apply an immediate remedy to the evils 
of which the petitioners complain, and which we 
fear will be aggravated by a continuance of existing 
commercial restrictions, or substitutes not less op- 
pressive and fatal, though veiled under new titles. 
But they are compelled to avow that it is with the 
people themselves that every efficient plan of redress 
must originate. While the advocates for British war 
and the contemners of commerce can calculate upon 
your divisions, they will advance in their mad and 
presumptuous course, and rely upon your governours 
and your representatives to neutralize your opposi- 
tion to their measures. But when they perceive that 



ADDRESS. 129 

you are prepared to break the chains imposed by a 
fatal and mistaken policy, and that all the constitut- 
ed authorities of New England are united in senti- 
ment and purpose ; when they are sensible that you 
are able to resist, and that self preservation will make 
resistance a duty, they will reflect upon your claims, 
and yield to the justice of your pretensions. They 
will feel that the confederation is intended for the 
general welfare, and that it is only by paying some 
regard to this object, we can maintain that union 
which common interest should make perpetual. 

On the contrary, nothing less than a perfect union 
and intelligence among the eastern states can pre- 
serve to them any share of influence in the national 
government. Without influence they can expect no 
regard to their interests, but are exposed to the ef- 
fects of a policy, whose object will be to secure pow- 
er and office, with a view to local and personal ag- 
grandizement, and to make them colonial govern- 
ments, subject to the worst form of domination, that 
of one member of a confederacy over another. 

The present state of our connexion is not far from 
this condition. The late election of representatives 
to Congress, and the votes for president, plainly de- 
monstrate the disapprobation of the present system 
by a great majority of the eastern people. Mr. Ma- 
dison, who was known to favour it, had not a vote 
in those states except in Vermont ; and recent elec- 
tions there afford evidence that at this moment he 
would have none. On the other hand, in the south- 
ern states, from the artificial popularity of this fatal 
system, his majority has been triumphant. 

The same division is apparent in Congress. The 
known wishes of the eastern states have been not 
merely neglected, but rejected with threatenings and 
contempt. 

Politicians of yesterday, from the back woods and 
mountains, vie with each other in the language of 
insult and defiance ; and the men whom you delight 
to honour, and the great majority of those who have 

R 



130 ADDRESS. 

the deepest interests at stake, in the welfare of the 
country, are stigmatized as a corrupt and seditious 
part of the community. Even when those of your 
own representatives, who have encouraged this pre- 
sumptuous conduct by their own countenance, dis- 
covering their errours, are desirous to recede, repent- 
ance comes too late. Thus, under new names, and 
with the same views, the embargo system is still ri- 
vetted upon our unhappy country, in spite of the 
opposition of some of those who appear too late de- 
sirous of retrieving their constituents from ruin. 
Thus a bill has already passed one branch ot the le- 
gislature, authorizing letters of marque and eprisal ; 
a measure calculated either to provoke an open war 
with Great Britain, or to protract the irritation and 
controversies subsisting between us. Choose, then, 
fellow citizens, between the condition of citizens of a 
free state, possessing its equal weight and influence 
in the national government ; or that of a colony, free 
m name, but in fact enslaved by sister states. 






I 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE, 

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOUR's SPEECH 8 

ANSWER OF THE SENATE 22 

ANSWER OF THE HOUSE 529 

JOINT REPORT ON PETITIONS 41 

GORE'S REPORT, &C. * 53 

REPORT ON MILITARY ORDERS 64* 

SPEECH OF GEN. MALTBY 71 

OF MR. SARGENT 77 

OF COL. THATCHER 83 

MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS 99 

ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE 110 



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